The Obsolete Protector
by M10m gas mask soldier
Summary: He and his brethren had been left to rot. Upon being revived, Subject Delta has to fight his way back to his beloved master's side. During his travels, he has a score to settle for his forgotten brethren. Reunited with an old friend, the two Big Daddies would remind the city what it meant to be afraid. Meanwhile, Eleanor wishes for Delta to be more than her father. AU. M.
1. Chapter 1: Return of Subject Delta

Title: The Obsolete Protector

Origin: Bioshock 2

POV: Subject Delta

Type: AU Bioshock 2

A.N.:

To anyone who takes the time to read this, I want to thank you in advance. This is my first Bioshock fanfic and my seventh story ever. I have been writing for F.E.A.R. for little over a year and I am not that great of a writer. So, I apologize in advance if this is sub-par.

Subject Delta is one of my all-time favorite characters and my favorite Bioshock character. I know most people have probably forgotten about him and the other Big Daddies because of the new timeline introduced in Infinite. So, I do not expect much feedback for this story.

Warning: This timeline is AU. The basic story is still intact but I am introducing a more in-depth backstory for Delta that will be revealed as he travels towards Eleanor.

I am also changing a few things to try to make it more realistic...for Bioshock anyway. Like no Vita-Chambers except the two in this chapter, convenient HUD, or massive amount of weaponry that he can somehow carry around and magically make pop in and out of existence whenever he wants to use them. He is only going to have his drill. He will have access to all the plasmids though. Drill Specialist xD

One last thing, the Delta in my story is still bound by his Protector Instincts. Being an Alpha Series, that does not alter him that much since they retain most of their free will except for when it comes to protecting their bonded sisters.

Speaking of the Alpha Series, I am going to have a deep connection amongst them. This chapter introduces what I mean. Needless to say, the Mass Produced Big Daddies are going to catch a lot of flak in this fic.

Again, this is outside my comfort zone as I have been writing for F.E.A.R. up until now.

So, thank you to whoever takes the time to read this. I appreciate it.

Sorry about using "drug" instead of dragged xD

Also, just for clarification, this first part is the true "present" in the story's timeline. The rest of the story afterwards is Delta remembering everything that had happened during his quest to get to Eleanor.

Disclaimer: Bioshock 2 and related characters are the property of 2K Games. I claim no ownership of Bioshock nor do I plan to profit from posting this.

* * *

Ch.1: Return of Subject Delta

"Wake up Herr Delta. The time for sleeping is over." The thick German accented voice of a woman roused me from my unnaturally deep slumber. Giving off a low rumbling groan, I opened my eyes. Taking in my surrounds, I saw that I was in a Vita-Chamber. The green arcs of electricity danced around my body yet I felt no pain. In the transparent surface of the concavo-convex Vita-Chamber door, I saw the reflection of the being that people called Subject Delta.

The monster that I had become looked back at me with its scratched, golden yellow oval eye that was divided into three sections by two narrow strips of metal. The rivet-covered copper skin of the diving helmet that was my face was dented and gouged in several places. Several of the rivets had been compromised but fortunately not enough to compromise my armored face. The left auxiliary light located below my eye failed to emit any light curtsey of the tip of an enraged Big Sister's needle-like weapon. The camera mounted on top of my head was crushed from when I had been unfortunate enough to enter a dual between another Alpha Series, a Big Sister, and a Rumbler.

The butterfly bolts running uniformly along the perimeter of my face were still intact, which I was grateful for because I could not stomach the idea of the world ever seeing the grotesque remains of the long dead man that I had once been entombed beneath the scarred face of Subject Delta. That man was dead. He had been murdered first by Andrew Ryan and then by Fontaine's butchers. This diving suit clad monster was all that was left of a ghost that had forgotten to die.

The heavy diving weight still hung down from my face by the two coils of rope. The tubes that were my nostrils were still secured to the sides of my face on either side of my eye and to my metal tank-like lungs located on my back. There, between my lungs was the metal tube crafted throne of my master. Unlike the tin men who dared to call themselves Big Daddies, we were designed for the express purpose of being perfect for our bonded masters. We certainly did not allow our precious daughters to walk the disgusting streets of Rapture as if they were common peasants. The once pristine blue canvas and brown leather skin of my body was covered with dried blood as well as scorched in several sections. The tube running down the interior of my heavily muscled left arm glowed with a brilliant blue color. Still attached to my left hip was my trusty non-magnetic brass diving knife.

My fully upgraded industrial grade drill, which was bigger and heavier than a man, remained attached to my right arm covered with dried blood, among other things, and poised to violently eviscerate anything foolish enough to cause my master to send me after it. At a point during my quest to return to my master's side, I had found that the drill's mounts had fused together from a combination of salt water and blood. As a result, my right hand was now permanently entombed beneath the razor sharp hardened steel industrial tool turned weapon of slaughter, forever doomed to grip the drill's controls without reprieve.

My thoughts raced inside my mind. Finally, after my dazed mind reoriented itself, my memories returned. I had died in Eleanor's arms. I remembered Persephone, my failure to get to Eleanor in time, my heart seizing painfully as my broken Pair Bond sought to send my body into a forced shutdown, my poor broken brothers in their decaying suits, Subject Omega, the bombs, and then carrying the weight of the ocean on my shoulders as the lifeboat carried us up towards the surface. A flood of intense cold erupted through me as I realized that something was missing. Eleanor!

In an instant, the golden yellow glow of my eye was replaced by a Hellish red as maddening, burning anger filled my entire being like molten lead. If she had been hurt, there would be Hell to pay! I would chase the culprits responsible to the ends of the Earth and beyond! I would ensure that they would never harm her ever again. The last thought that would go through their minds would be the question of how they could be so stupid to touch the daughter of the Big Daddy that even Big Sisters had learned to fear! "Herr Delta, it is alright. Easy, your body is still in a state of shock. Listen to my voice. It is Dr. Tenenbaum...you remember me...yes? You rescued all those little girls that Lamb had kidnapped...I owe you a debt Delta..."

'_Dr. Tenenbaum? Wait...that is the woman who helped me...friend...no hurt..._'

My ally continued to address me with a soft motherly tone, "Calm down Herr Delta. I have Eleanor here. She is safe." Her attempts to reassure me failed as my mind was too far gone and corrupted by the burning fury of my Protector Instincts. My rage-consumed mind translated her reassurances to have a different meaning entirely.

'_SHE HAS ELEANOR!_'

'_KILL!_'

I let out an ear-shattering guttural roar that would have filled even the strongest Big Sister with fright. Unable to control my actions completely due to my Protector Instincts, I mindlessly lunged forward against the barrier between my baby girl and me. With the sound of twisting metal and cracking glass, my assault succeeded in cracking the glass of the Vita-Chamber's door and causing its metal frame to bow outwards. One more assault would do it. Outside the chamber, I heard Tenenbaum yell, "Sigma! Someone go get Eleanor!"

I tightened the huge muscles in my tree trunk like legs and then threw my entire body against the weakened exit of my prison once again. The Vita-Chamber's door submitted to my assault and flew across the room to smash against the far wall of what looked like a scientific lab of some sort. Though it took me a moment to realize where we were, I finally recognized the room as being the one in Sinclair's Lifeboat where Eleanor had saved her mother, Sofia, like the gentle forgiving spirit that I had always wanted her to be, and then placed her gloved hand on the other side of mine as we neared the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Before me in the middle of the room, I saw an alert Tenenbaum stepping back towards the opposite side of the dome-shaped room. She had been through too much in her life to feel any fear, even for an enraged Big Daddy. Her intelligence filled eyes locked onto me as she calmly began to devise a solution for this new problem. Trying to fight against my programming, I stomped towards her, my weighted diving boots shaking the floor beneath us.

As I continued to stomp menacingly towards the aged scientist, suddenly, an Alpha Series with an almost pristine suit, though like me he too had scars of battle, rushed into the room. Though his visor was emitting golden yellow light, my brother moved to stand in front of her. In his grasp, he held a weird looking weapon that I had never personally seen before. However, it looked familiar. After racking my memory, I remembered that it was an Ion Laser. Only the rare prototype Lancer Big Daddies had those. He must have somehow found a way into Minerva's Den. I thought that it had been completely cut off from Rapture. Examining his hands, I saw the stamped symbol for "Sigma".

I gave off a threatening, rumbling roar to warn my brother to step aside as I moved closer to them. However, Subject Sigma remained in front of the scientist and replied with his own threatening call. The fact that he was capable of restraint indicated that he was just as sane as I was. Well, we were saner than our poor broken brothers that lumbered through the partially sunken ruins of Rapture in vain searches for their dead bonded sisters.

My poor brothers, I had known all of them before my demise at the hands of Lamb's splicers. We had all known each other. I had been viewed as the paragon of the Alpha Series. They looked up to me. I taught my brothers how to fight. I taught them when to use brute strength alone to win and when to use their wits to outsmart their opponents. With my leadership, we had become a formidable fighting force. Only our bonded masters could control us. Even gods among men like Andrew Ryan, though he was too proud to ever admit it, were afraid of us.

It had broken my heart to see what they had decayed into: barely sentient psychologically unstable shells that could not even control their own plasmids. The leather skin of their bodies were ripped open in sections to reveal the ADAM ravaged remains of the men that they had once been. Their cracked eyes were blank black stares. Their once formidable tools of our craft malfunctioned in battle due to lack of maintenance. What remained of the once proud Alpha Series were lumbering shells of our former glory.

The city had forgotten us. We were once hailed as the saviors of Rapture as we valiantly protected our bonded partners with our lives so that there was a constant supply of ADAM. We were celebrities in a way. People would sometimes follow us at a safe distance to watch us protect our bonded masters. As Ryan's prisoners, we had been erased from existence, but as Alpha Series Big Daddies, we were the city's favorite sons. Eleanor and I especially drew a lot of admiration. Everyone knew the names Subject Delta and Eleanor. In a way, my beautiful daughter and I became a symbol of hope for the ADAM starved, war weary city. Then, we were heartlessly cast aside in favor of the hulking, monstrous, tin men called the Mass Produced Big Daddies: Bouncers, Rosies, and Lancers though they never left Minerva's Den.

We all despised them! They were a mockery to the title of Big Daddy. They were heartless foul-smelling brutes that did not care about their sisters. Every Little Sister was the same to them! We loved our bonded sisters! We truly wanted to be with them! We treated protecting our sisters as a privilege and honor. The Mass Produced Big Daddies treated protecting their Little Sisters as if it were a chore instead of a privilege! They only protected their sisters because their programming had rendered them will-less. We protected our sisters because they were our daughters.

Every time I killed one of the "superior" Mass Production Big Daddies, I felt no remorse or pity for them. Why would I? They felt nothing for their Little Sisters. They were hollow tin men. I was essentially killing a machine. I felt happiness in hearing their death bellows because I had avenged my fallen brothers once again. WE were the SUPERIOR protectors, NOT the tin men! We fought even with our dying breath. We stood ready to defend our beautiful daughters in that grim, blood covered sunken mausoleum called Rapture at a second's notice. However, despite our near flawless battlefield prowess, in the end, the once mighty Alpha Series decayed into barely sentient monsters; the final victims of the very thing that had made us so valiant and invincible in battle: our Pair Bonds.

As I continued stomping towards the pair, I let out another rumbling roar, but this one was more of a beg than a threat. I did not want to harm my brother. When my brother remained in front of the scientist, I felt a strange feeling of wetness that traveled down the sides of the dead man's face beneath the emotionless metal skin of my real one. It took me a moment to remember that the bizarre sensation was caused by crying. My brother had left me no choice.

I raised my drill and powered up its motor, causing a loud mechanical roar to fill the room. Then, I charged forward into Subject Sigma. My Drill Dash succeeded in disarming him, his Ion Laser flew out of his grasp and clattered onto the floor a good foot away, and sending him tumbling onto the ground. My experienced melee prowess was legendary in the sunken ruins of Rapture. Sigma would be incapacitated for a good minute. I did not want to harm my brother any further so I moved forward towards the woman and left Sigma on the floor.

Seconds later, I was before the scientist. However, as I lifted my drill up above my head with its still razor sharp point aimed downwards, four skinny, gloved hands grabbed my arms up around my shoulders. I let out an enraged roar as I twisted around to get free from my assailants. I caught glimpses of two lithe black and white diving suit armored adolescent girls. Big Sisters! As the ex-Little Sisters fought to restrain me, I saw that their large round eyes were green rather than their usual Hellish red. The observation puzzled me, but did not distract me from my rage-fueled quest to find Eleanor.

I pressed my left hand against my chest and discharged a blast of Electro Bolt 3. The Big Sisters screeched as the blue electric arcs around my body traveled to dance around them as well. However, as I had Electric Flesh spliced, I was unaffected. I swung my drill sideways and bashed the one to my right across the front of her bulbous head. The blow sent the defenseless sister tumbling to the ground while blue electric arcs continued to dance around her lithe form. I turned to face the other sister.

I raised my left hand up and grabbed her by her head. I lifted her up off the ground for a moment before throwing her like a baseball. The skinny adolescent flew towards the far wall, where, upon reaching it, she smashed into a pristine brightly lit Circus of Values vending machine. The impact crumpled in the front of the machine and, to my enjoyment, silenced the annoying voice of the clown. After the Big Sister fell onto the floor in front of the machine, I saw sparks begin to erupt out of the collapsed section of the device.

I turned back to the scientist to find that she was attempting to flee. I grabbed her by the back of her neck with my enormous left hand. '_NO! STOP!_' Despite my attempts to fight against my instincts, I guided her over my shoulder and then threw her onto the floor. She hit her head during the impact with the floor. As she looked up at me with a dazed look in her eyes, I revved up my drill. As the room was filled with the sound of my drill's whirling, I sent the deadly extension of my right arm towards her face.

Suddenly, I heard the sweetest voice I had ever heard cry out, "Father stop!" The command caused me to halt the advance of my drill's spinning point mere inches from the surface of Tenenbaum's left eye. The maddening rage instantly left my mind and I was able to regain control of my body. After powering down my drill and returning it to my right side, I gently assisted the "Mother Goose" as she went to stand up.

As she stood before me, I kneeled and let out a mournful moan of regret. However, to my surprise, she gave me the faintest smile that I had ever seen and then assured me with a gentle tone, "Herr Delta, you have nothing to apologize for. Excuse me, I need to go look over a few things in my notes." She walked past me and towards a worktable to the right of the destroyed Vita-Chamber. I stood back up.

Remembering the voice, I turned my body around to look behind me. There, I was met by the sight of a dozen Big Sisters. I would have normally felt intimidated by the large number of "Lamb's Hand" but the sight of the helmet-less Big Sister standing out in front of the others caused me to let out a happy groan. Eleanor beamed back at me with a huge smile that reminded me of the smile that she gave me when she was a little girl. Her innocent beautiful, pale face was a stark contrast to the disturbingly sharp look in her blue eyes.

As I moved towards her, I gave off a quizzical groan. She smirked before she replied with her accented voice, "Dr. Tenenbaum managed to repair our bond while she was messing around with your genetic sequence. I told you before Father, I will be damned before I let Mother take you away from me again. Plus...you can't tell me that you don't want to rub it in Mother's face that no matter what she does, she cannot keep us apart." I gave off a kind of laugh in the form of repeated grunts. Then, I gave off another quizzical groan.

She pouted before she turned and pulled the nearest Big Sister into a hug. She turned back and looked at me with Bambi eyes while continuing to hug the Big Sister close to her. She said, "They don't have anywhere else to go, Father. Deep down, we are all still Little Sisters. Mother had convinced them that you were going to hurt me. They were just protecting their sister, Father. Please?"

I gave off a defeated groan, causing Eleanor to smile. As I reached her, she released her sister, who returned to where she had been moments prior while giving off strange noises that vaguely sounded like complaints and smoothing the wrinkles in her suit that Eleanor's hug had caused. Then, she threw herself into me. As she wrapped her thin arms around my massive chest, I gently returned the gesture with my free left arm. While we enjoyed our long overdue reunion, I reflected upon the events that had transpired to lead to this moment.

* * *

Awareness suddenly hit me in an agonizing wave of sensation. Eventually, the pain ceased and I was able to concentrate. When I did, I realized that something was wrong. I was floating in a choking black abyss. I tried to move but my limbs failed to respond. Panicking, I attempted to cry out but no sound escaped my numb body. Did I even have a body? For that matter, who was I? As if on cue, my mind's eye was assaulted by a memory.

As I fought against the effects of the Hypnotize Plasmid in my forced kneeling position, I berated myself for allowing a momentary lapse in focus to endanger my precious Eleanor. I should have seen that plasmid coming! I should have just killed that bastard instead of wasting time by trying to bore into him.

I could just imagine the Mass Production Big Daddies enjoying seeing me like this. The mighty Subject Delta, the original Big Daddy, paragon of the Alpha Series, and arguably the strongest Big Daddy in all of Rapture, caught off guard by something as idiotic as the Hypnotize Plasmid? Yes, those tin men would certainly enjoy seeing me like this. No matter, once the effects of the plasmid wore off, I was going to make them all pay for this.

How dare this woman touch Eleanor?! I glared at her with the face of the dead man these people called "Johnny Topside" as I fought against her orders. My real face lay on the ground where I had dropped it. Through the green tint that had covered my vision, I saw the heart wrenching frightened look on my daughter's face. I tried to give off a reassuring grunt but the plasmid's effects prevented me from doing so. There was no way that this woman was Eleanor's real mother. A real mother would never put her daughter through something like this. She was just another deranged splicer that I would put out of its misery once this plasmid wore off.

"Place the pistol against your head." With a shaking right hand, I raised the golden 9x19mm Luger P08 up against my head. '_Come on old man! Fight it! Just resist for a few more moments and the plasmid will wear off._' I could feel the effects of the Hypnotize plasmid wearing off. '_Yes! Just a little bit more!_' However, I suddenly felt an intense feeling of fear wash over me that was so frigid that I felt the urge to vomit as I heard her say the final command in a disturbingly calm tone.

"Fire."

'_No! NO! Eleanor, please look away! Come on lady, have some decency! Don't make her watch this! She's just a child!' _I fought to resist as hard as I could but my trigger finger slowly began to squeeze the trigger. A terrifying realization hit me. This was it. I was really going to die like this. Worse, I was leaving my daughter in the hands of this lunatic. I had failed the only person that loved the monster that people called "Subject Delta". I looked my baby girl in her beautiful glowing eyes as I mentally begged her, "_Eleanor, please forgive Daddy! I love yo..._"

She rushed forward as she screamed, "DADDY!" However, at that very moment, I squeezed the trigger. As the shot rang out, my vision faded into darkness from which there was no escape.

* * *

A bright white flash came over my vision. During the flash, I heard a woman's heavily accented voice as she contacted me through my built in radio, "Hello can you hear me? Your signal is very weak." I opened my eyes to see the two narrow strips of metal that segmented my eye into three sections. Beyond them, I saw the palm of my gloved left hand with its port that allowed me to use plasmids. Letting out a loud groan, I shifted my weight to look over at my right hand. However, instead of gloved digits with metal fingertips, I found my trusty heavy drill still securely mounted over my hand. '_Eleanor..._' I needed to find her and get her away from that female splicer.

I turned my left hand over and began to push myself up. As I did, I saw my reflection in the puddle that I had been lying in. My glowing golden yellow eye and two auxiliary lights shined brightly. My riveted copper face was pristine and shiny. As I continued to rise to my feet, I noticed my tube like nostrils and metal lungs. Though the room I was in was dark, I also noticed how clean the blue canvas and brown leather skin of my body looked. I had to admit that I looked pretty good for a dead man.

Having pushed my huge bulk up enough, I dragged my weighted diving boot entombed left foot forward until I was able to reach a kneeling position. From there, I was able to stand fully upright. The drawback to my ADAM enhanced Big Daddy physique was that the simple task of standing turned into a complicated process. The sight of the room that I was in could only be described as alien.

Aside from the round concrete pedestal in the center of the room with decorative plants and a metal globe with the blue colored words "ADONIS" and below that, "LUXURY RESORTS" located inside of it, the entire bottom floor of the room was flooded. Beneath my feet, the checkerboard patterned dark and light blue tiles with gold trim were covered with garbage. Against the far wall where the two staircases that allowed access to the upper floor met, I saw the white colored handwritten phrase, "FALLEN, FALLEN IS BABYLON".

The left staircase was collapsed and water was pouring down from the ceiling in the far corner. Meanwhile, the right staircase was encrusted with pink coral. The groaning of metal filled the air as if the roof would collapse at any second. The cry of some creature occasionally interrupted the groaning. If the sight was not glaring me straight in the face, I would have never believed that this place could look like this. This was Adonis? This place was high end and catered only to the richest citizens of Rapture! What happen to this place? How long had I been dead?

Moving forward, I entered the pool of water. I growled slightly as the icy sting of the Atlantic Ocean penetrated the canvas hide of my legs. Not wanting to remain in the frigid water for very long, I slogged my way towards the relatively dry landing of the staircase. As I reached the decorative pedestal in the center of the room, I paused as I heard a soft voice. It was a little girl. Moreover, I heard the strange edge in her voice that could only mean one thing: she was a Little Sister.

I failed to detect any telltale calls of a protector. She was alone? In a place like this? Concerned for her welfare in this icebox of a place, I moved faster towards the landing. I barely noticed the water flowing down the steps to feed the rising water of the bottom floor or the collage of people's photographs located on the wall below the "Babylon" message like some kind of memorial. Turning right, I trudged up the stairs past the pieces pink coral that I noticed seemed to have some kind of bioluminescence as they emitted pink light onto the stairs.

As I turned right once again, I saw a decorative Little Sister vent that had the strange design that reminded me of the sunflowers from the surface. A more intense feeling of concern filled me as I saw the water flowing down from the ceiling in front of the vent. Pushing my heavy frame as fast as I could move without falling forward onto my face, I rushed towards the vent.

Upon nearing it, my worst fears were confirmed when I saw the pair of glowing eyes appear just beyond the entrance to the vent. I gave off a reassuring groan to try to tell her not to be afraid. However, to my confusion, she retreated away from me and down into the vent network. The water flowing down from the ceiling caused an annoying echo inside my armored head as I passed through it. The lone sister was likely long gone through the vent network. I could only pray that she would come out through one somewhere warm and safe.

I went to turn and travel up the next flight of stairs. That is, until I caught the all too familiar scent in the air. My blood ran cold and I stopped dead in my tracks. That smell that came from that Little Sister sent a primal wave of fear through me. Eleanor! That was Eleanor's pheromone signature!

I gave off a guttural roar as I returned to the vent. I balled my gauntlet-encased left hand into a fist and then pounded against the vent's surface three times. My blows caused the thin metal surface to hum softly after giving off a hollow thud. I returned my left hand back down to my side and then waited. I ignored the frigid water flowing down my back as I continued to wait. When there was no response, I panicked. Eleanor! Why did she flee from me? Maybe I could run into her at another vent.

I turned and rushed up the stairs to my right. Upon seeing the coral blocking the way out, I thrust my drill into the pink masses of calcium. After three thrusts, I had succeeded in clearing the doorway. The hallway beyond was in even worse shape than the room I had just left. Water poured into the low-ceilinged passageway and an algae covered column had collapsed conveniently right where I needed to pass through in order to get to the open doorway on the far side of the hallway.

Luckily, I was just barely able to squeeze underneath the collapsed, fragmented column and I continued towards the exit. As I stood back upright, I saw the shadow of a little girl running away in the white light that was coming from the room beyond the open exit. Moving as fast as I could towards the open doorway, I let out a mournful cry as I begged her to stop. The scent in the air confirmed that it was my sweet little Eleanor. Why did she run? Had I done something wrong? Then, it hit me: she must have still been angry with me for failing her.

Still, why would she not stop for me? She must have been absolutely frozen from running around in this flooding resort. I had to get her somewhere warm! Granted, as a Little Sister, she was actually not aware of most physical sensations except for when she was gathering or when her innocent mind was suddenly ripped from the "Happy Place" and thrust into this dangerous reality. However, just because she was not aware of how cold she was, that was no excuse for me to skirt my responsibilities of being her father.

As I neared the light filled open exit, I heard an unusual noise. I had never heard anything like it. It was like the screech of some kind of animal that also had a mechanical quality to it. That was impossible. This was Rapture! There were no animals here other than family pets. With my drill poised at the ready, I went through the opening.

The room beyond was a large pool area. However, I barely noticed that as I was immediately drawn to the lithe creature near the top of the nearest left art deco column. It looked human, but as it screeched at me while boring into me with the large round Hellish red eye in the center of its bulbous head, I knew that whatever this bizarre creature was, it would be wise for me not to take a confrontation with it lightly.

As I watched, the creature jumped clear to the other side of the pool to the third column in the row of four. I heard a loud cracking noise beneath the sound of its continued screech. It jumped from the column but I lost sight of it as a large section the art deco structure that it had previously occupied fell free from the rest of the structure and impacted the surface of the deep end of the empty pool with a loud crash. Whatever that thing was, I did not want to stick around in case it changed its mind about fighting. That fact that it clearly had no fear of me, a Big Daddy, was enough to rattle me slightly.

At the far end of the enormous room, I saw the only other source of light in this place other than the natural light that was lazily entering the room through the three large windows in the ceiling above the pool and the occasional sparks emitting from the large generator in the far left corner of the room. It was a neon advertisement sign. Glowing with a light purple color, the advertisement was two words. In a fancy, cursive font, the top word was "Plasmid". Below it, in a plain but bold font, was the word, "THERAPIES".

Plasmids huh? If that thing came back, having a plasmid or two would definitely help. I moved towards the far end of the room. My heavy footfalls echoed through the cavernous space as my weighted boots collided with the tiled surface of the path around of the pool. As I neared the far right corner, I noticed a little can of fuel amongst what looked like some splicer's nest.

Handouts in Rapture were hard to come by so I grabbed the little can with my left hand and dumped what little fuel there was inside it into my drill's fuel reservoir. The hunchbacked Bouncers had a nearly endless supply of fuel for their drills thanks to the enormous tank on their back next to their oxygen tank. Unfortunately, my sleek design made such a large fuel tank impractical so I had a much smaller reservoir. Just as well, those Bouncers were more of a joke than anything else as they lumbered around looking like giant bloated fat men in their modified Carmagnolle atmospheric diving suits. One time as a prank, Eleanor and I had sneaked up behind one and pushed him over. We called it "Bouncer Tipping".

Having emptied the little yellow fuel tank, I tossed it aside and continued towards the Plasmid Therapies area to see if there was some plasmids that were still left. As I neared the door, I heard a woman's voice. She seemed to be yelling at someone as she said, "I need this! Do you hear me?" A single thought went through my head, '_Splicer_.' With my drill ready, I traveled through the empty door frame.

At the bottom of the stairs before me, the path became a "T". Against the far wall, I saw a grime covered statue of what I could only guess was an angel. As I reached the top of the stairs, a can of what appeared to be peaches slowly rolled across the once shiny tiled floor from the left path. Unafraid, I casually descended the stairs.

Upon reaching the bottom, I heard the same woman cry out. Turning my whole body, I looked down the left path to find another open door. Seconds later, a horribly disfigured woman with a lead pipe in her right hand retreated out of the room beyond. Despite her appearance, I was unaffected and felt nothing except the barest traces of sympathy for this poor individual. I had seen worse at Fontaine Futuristics. The lumpy sore covered pasty skin was what ADAM did to a human being. There was no way around it. Once someone had been exposed to ADAM, there was no going back. There was no such thing as a "recreational user" when it came to the corrupting green slime like substance that had become the single most valuable commodity in Rapture. Everyone wanted it and everyone needed it.

I prepared to dispatch the oblivious "Thuggish" splicer but before I could act, small caliber arms fire rang out. The woman cried out as several bullets stuck her from behind. The unarmored splicer's body jerked with each eruption of blood and bone fragments. Dying before she even hit the floor, she fell forward. As her corpse laid there in an unceremonious heap, her killer appeared.

The man had been a doctor according to the torn yellowed surgeon's jacket, doctor's mask, and the small flashlight secured in the center of his forehead by a strap. However, I noticed the weathered revolver in his right hand before I noticed his attire. The "Leadhead" splicer turned and looked at me. He raised his revolver at me, but before he could use it, I had rushed forward and thrust my drill into the weapon.

Sparks flew as my blow caused the revolver to fly out of the splicer's hand. The weapon clattered against the ground over by a Little Sister vent. Before he could react, I swung my drill sideways and bashed him in the side of his skull. The sound of cracking bone filled the air as he tumbled through the air with a trail of blood following him. With a sickening thud, he landed headfirst into the opposite side of the open doorway hard enough to dislodge small bits of the concrete structure. I moved over to him and towered over the broken splicer.

The side of his skull was cracked open and I could see the disgusting jelly-looking remains of what had once been his brain through the jagged edges of his wound. The splicer moaned as he lifted his head up to look at me. The ADAM in their system made outright killing the only solution for an attacking splicer. The deranged former doctor cried out, "Nurse! Where is that damn nurse?" I powered up my drill and then thrust its whirling tip into the splicer's face. Seconds later, it was all over.

I ripped my drill from the remains of the splicer's head and then entered the therapy clinic. As I did, my attention was drawn to the Gather's Garden vending machine against the far back wall as the imitation of a little girl announced, "My daddy's SMARTER than Einstein, STRONGER than Hercules and lights a fire with a SNAP of his fingers. Are you as good as my daddy, Mister? Not if you don't visit the Gatherer's Garden, you aren't! Smart daddies get spliced, at the Gardens!"

As I moved towards the machine, I noticed that there was a glowing red plasmid vial with a red bow tied around it. Puzzled, I entered the back area where the machine was located. As I crossed the threshold, a warm sensation of joy and peace suddenly erupted inside my mind. My vision was consumed by a bright white light that had a pink border. As the feeling of surreal bliss continued, a young woman's face appeared in the center of the bright light.

Despite the happiness that I felt, my instincts kept me wary of this woman and what she was doing to me. Moments later however, she silenced my concerns as she spoke to me with the most beautiful, will-dissolving voice that I had ever heard, "Father." Shortly afterwards, the woman, the light, and the feeling of bliss left me and I was once again alone in the cold, dark room with the Gather's Garden.

I twisted around in confusion but failed to detect any concealed individuals or any other means of causing what I had just experienced. Who was that woman? I was certain that I had never met someone that looked like her. She called me "Father" too. She was either completely out of her mind, confusing me with someone else, or, perhaps most unsettling, she really was my daughter. The latter was impossible. In my former life, I could vaguely recall having a family of some kind. Whether it was direct family or a created one, I did not know.

It was extremely unlikely that any true members of my former life's family had tracked me down to this place at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. As much as I wanted to dismiss the encounter as just a Splicer that had learned a new trick, I could not. Her voice resonated inside me in a way that only one other individual's did. However, that meant that the latter had actually been true. The reality of the situation hit me and I let out an agonized wail that vibrated the air inside the damp, dark, crypt-like clinic.

That woman was my Eleanor! My little girl had been forced to grow up in this sunken dead city without me. That meant that I had been dead for ten years at least. I faced the gut wrenching fact that everything that I had once held dear had likely long since been killed, vandalized, and left to rot somewhere in these sunken hallways. What cruelty was this? Was this some kind of sick revenge by some unknown party? Why was I back? Why?

My agonized thoughts ceased when I noticed that the plasmid vial appeared to be a gift. Behind the vending machine on the wall was a crayon drawing of the sun. Beside it, I saw the crayon created message, "FROM ELEANOR". I was stunned by the message. Eleanor had left this for me?

A wave of renewed purpose filled me. Eleanor had left this for me so she must have needed me. That splicer that had taken her from me while also forcing me to kill myself must have been endangering her. '_NO! NO! WAKE UP YOU WORTHLESS OLD MAN! YOUR JOB IS NOT DONE SOLDIER!_' The room was briefly illuminated with red light as I felt my dormant Protector Instincts activate and temporarily change the light that was emitted from my eye to Hellish red.

I laughed with repeated grunts as I let the sensation fill my mind. Whatever the reasons for this strange turn of events and whatever lay before me, one thing was certain: Subject Delta was back! As the sensation continued, I let out louder laugh-like grunts that echoed through out the sunken halls of the resort. Someone had tried to give me complete free will, I could feel that in my head. However, I did not want it.

I was an Alpha Series Big Daddy! The Protector Instincts provided by the Pair Bond gave me the edge in combat that I needed to protect my Eleanor! She was the most important thing in the world! I was nothing! The loss of my complete free will was a small price to pay to ensure that she was safe! I was going to tear this city apart to find her! I was going to show these broken denizens what happened when someone had the audacity to separate me from my daughter!

Eventually, the corrupting sensation died down in my mind but I could still feel it there like a presence inside me that refused to leave. Of course, I did not want it to leave. Why would I want it to leave? It felt so wonderful. I reached forward and picked up the vial of Electro Bolt with my gloved left hand. Realizing what had to be done and that it was presently impossible unless I did something that I would normally consider out of the question, I grunted in annoyance before I rendered myself defenseless by detaching my drill from my right arm.

I knew the agony that I was about to endure. I had already experienced it once before the first time that Fontaine's butchers injected me with the first prototype plasmid that they had picked me to be the first test subject. I used a hypodermic needle to extract some of the red liquid from the vial. With the needle in my right hand, I dropped the vial and prepared myself. Then, I plunged the hollow needlepoint into the port on my left arm. Steeling myself, I pressed the plunger on the back of the needle down and injected the plasmid into my body.

Instantly, I cried out in agony as blue electric bolts began to erupt out of my palms. Continuing to groan loudly in pure misery, I twisted around to face the entrance to the therapy clinic. I lifted my hands up towards my face as it felt like my body was going to explode. Any normal person or even a splicer would have blacked out from the onslaught of pain. Finally, giving off one final cry, I collapsed onto the dirty tiled floor.

My senses began to recover after a moment. Unfortunately, before I was able to recover completely, I saw a shadow creep towards me. A splicer! I used my arms to push my torso up so I could look at my assailant. My concern proved to be incorrect, however, as I was met by the sight of a blue and white dressed Little Sister. Because my vision was still distorted, I was unable to make out any significant features other than her glowing yellow eyes.

She addressed me with her almost robotic sounding voice, "Daddy was sleeping...for such a long time...and Eleanor has missed you..." My vision cleared and I was able to see her dirty brown hair that was tied up in the back by a white bow, pale almost green skin, the dark rings around her eyes, the dried blood on her dress, and the little Big Daddy doll in her arms. This poor Little Sister was a stark contrast to the clean, beloved ones that my brothers and I had protected. It pulled at my heart to see a Little Sister like this. Little Sisters were precious little angels that were to be cherished, not treated like garbage.

The neglected little girl moved closer until she was inches from my copper face. She finished, "...find her and you will be all better." This close, I felt like I was drowning in the smell of pheromones that she gave off. Her signature was nearly identical to Eleanor's. That was unusual. The likelihood of that happening by sheer happenstance was nearly zero. Perhaps, I would unravel that little mystery as I sought out my own, now grown, Little Sister. In the meantime, this little one needed an escort to the nearest dry section of the resort. I still could not believe that this little one was out on her own. This was typical Mass Production Big Daddy laziness and/or carelessness. What, did her protector get distracted by something shiny?

I went to stand but seemingly from out of thin air, the skinny bizarre creature from before rushed past me from behind and snatched up the Little Sister. The frightened child gave off a high-pitched scream before crying out, "DADDY!" I let out a furious guttural roar as my Protector Instincts flared inside my mind once again. Within seconds, I was upright with my drill once again mounted to my right arm. With the new addition of electric arcs dancing around my left hand, I charged after the foolish creature that dared to upset a Little Sister in front of me.


	2. Chapter 2: Lamb's Hand

Ch. 2: Lamb's Hand

A.N.:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my first chapter. I know that this story is not near as good as the other stories with Delta but I am too attached to my characters to leave them to rot.

As I said in my previous note, this is in an alternate universe of the second game. As such, certain characters, Eleanor and Delta for example, have slightly different backstories that I will be revealing as I progress. In addition, certain forced events will not be happening in my story. Still, the general tragedy-filled story will be intact.

So, my Delta lived...sue me, I don't like killing characters. It makes me feel sad on the inside and stuff. If it makes you feel better, he will be getting the shit knocked out of him and there will be plenty of heartbreak, angst, and shit during his quest.

This Delta is my take on his "good" personality so my bad if anyone got the impression that this is his "evil" personality in the first chapter.

As AU, I am not straight ripping the story straight from the game. He has no HUD so the healing and EVE systems are autonomous in my story. The hacking system will be different too for the sake of realism.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story with its insanely long chapters. I appreciate it.

As I say in my other stories,

Read and review if you want.

* * *

As I gave chase, I noticed the EVE Dispenser over on the right wall. I would need full EVE reserves in a confrontation with that thing. I made my way over to it. Though I had to wait a few moments between each dispense, I knew that it was worth the wait. The EVE tube on the interior of my arm was not pressurized so I was easily able to refill my reserve. Finally, after topping off my EVE Tank on my back, I went over to the exit.

The creature had forced the watertight bulkhead to seal shut, but, focusing, I willed a blast of Electro Bolt into the shorted out door release lever on the left side of the bulkhead. The blast succeeded in forcing the watertight obstacle to open. Rushing through the opening, I called out for the Little One with a long, low grunt that would reverberate through the decrepit resort. If she was still alive, she would hear me. My calls may not be the ones of those tin men, but this particular Little Sister seemed to respond to me as if I was. I feared the worst when I did not receive a response. Even worse, I failed to catch even the barest trace of her scent in the air.

After investigating the steam room on the other side of the hall to make sure that horrible creature did not lock the child inside the still functional sweatbox, I returned to the pool area. The voices that I heard as I climbed the stairs warned me of two new Splicer arrivals. I did not have time for this! That Little One needed me! Rage flared inside of me. I was not going to fail again! I did not care what or who got in my way, I would kill them all! No one touched a Little One on my watch! It was time to reestablish my reputation as a Master Protector.

Before me, what remained of one of Ryan's thugs was peering over the side of the diving board with his back to me. Stomping towards him in large strides, I was within striking distance in less than five seconds. Before he could turn, I swung my drill as hard as I could into the back of his head. The sharp point of my repurposed industrial tool easily penetrated the Splicer's skull as the wet sound of popping and cracking filled the damp air.

Hearing another Splicer coming towards me from behind, I quickly turned around. With the lifeless body of the first Splicer still on the end of my drill, I slung my right arm as I took aim at the charging disfigured woman. The dead body flew off my drill and into the woman. As the two collapsed into a heap, I rushed forward and finished off the woman by crushing her skull beneath my heavy right foot.

With the locals out of my way, I focused back on finding the kidnapped child. As I looked around the dark room, I noticed that the only other way out was through a sealed door. Observing the power cables, I turned my body to face the dormant generator. It reminded me of one of the diesel/electric engines of the _Balao-class _submarines in the United States Navy with its exposed shafts. It looked intact upon a quick visual inspection. Maintaining a safe distance in case Rapture decided to give me the finger, I fired a blast of Electro Bolt into its exposed electric panel.

Giving off black smoke and shooting electric arcs, the generator thundered to life. Like an awakening ghost, the room's lights powered on and the metal shades against the wall next to the generator began to raise up to reveal the ocean floor beyond. I saw a Bouncer Big Daddy making his way across the ocean floor and was tempted to taunt him from the window but I froze as I heard the voice filling the room.

It was a woman's voice and she was singing. However, I could not have cared less about the voice. It was the song that struck a chord inside me. "My lovin' daddy left his baby again. Said he would be back but forgot to say when." As if I was in a trance, I could not move as the song filled my head. "...home isn't home when you're not there. No need to knock, the door is open for you. Please, Daddy."

A memory played inside my head as I continued to listen to the song. It was Eleanor. We were outside that fancy restaurant named Kashmir Restaurant. She was standing next to her recently harvested "angel", a well-dressed middle-aged businessman that must have ended up biting off more than he could chew with a rival as the multiple stab marks looked like rage-induced haphazard wounds instead of methodical attacks. This poor individual had been recently murdered as evident by the fact that he was still warm and had not been removed, which was why we had been able to reach him before the street sweepers did. She raised her head and closed her eyes as she smiled with her trademark goofy expression.

As I kept an eye out for incoming Splicers, she began to sway as she listened to the music playing from inside the establishment. Before I could stop her, she suddenly darted through the main entrance under the bright purple sign advertising the place's name. Giving off a grunt in alarm, I hurried after her. I ignored the shocked, well-dressed patrons and even knocked a few inebriated ones over when they failed to move fast enough. The rich, elite citizens glanced at me with a mixture of revulsion and fear, which I slightly enjoyed.

As I made my way across the upper floor, I noticed a group of recognizable social giants in one of the booths to my right. It was the big man himself, Andrew Ryan, and a little party of his inner circle: his friend Bill McDonagh, his Head of Security Sullivan, his puppy Diane McClintock, and another woman but I did not recognize her though she was probably McDonagh's wife. Part of me, the remnant of the erased man from the surface, wanted to rush over to them and send my drill's whirling bit into Ryan's face for all of Rapture's elite to watch. However, I did not care about any of that anymore. There was only one thing that I cared about now.

Looking away from the group, I continued my search for my Eleanor. Luckily, I soon found her in the center of the little dance area in the far left corner of the upper floor. Her clean white dress was wrinkled from where she had been dancing. Her clean, matching white shoes sat side-by-side in the near left corner of the dance floor as they hurt her feet too much to dance in. As I approached, she turned to look at me. I let out a concerned groan when I saw the hurt expression on her marble-like face. She sniffled as she pointed back behind her towards the frightened and disgusted men that were supposed to be playing the music with her free left index finger.

As I reached the edge of the dance area, she finally managed to say with her still noticeably British accented voice, "Daddy, they stopped playing the music. I asked politely like a good girl but they still will not play the music. I want the pretty music again." When I reached her, she threw her tiny frame around my massive right leg. She started sobbing as she buried her face into the blue canvas skin of my upper thigh.

I tried not to spoil her but we had been gathering nonstop, except for a few catnaps on Eleanor's part from exhaustion, for three days due to a sudden spike in the demand for Plasmids and Gene Tonics thanks to circulating rumors that there was about to be an ADAM shortage. Rumors my ass, Fontaine was using one of the oldest tricks in the book to line his pockets with even more money. If my baby girl wanted some music to dance and relax after the grind that we had been putting in so that these people got their precious ADAM, then my baby girl was going to get music.

I looked at the men who had dared to upset my Eleanor and began to emit a rumbling groan. The men looked at each other and then back at us. When they did not act as if they were about to grant my baby girl's request, I was about to resort to reviving my drill but suddenly a female voice said, "You men should be ashamed of yourselves." I twisted to the right to see a young woman, that I vaguely recalled having the first name of Anna and was an artist of sorts, walking towards us.

When she reached us, she pointed down at a still crying Eleanor with her left index finger and asked with an accusing tone, "How can you sit there and upset a child?" Turning towards us, Anna asked with a sweet tone, "Excuse me, sweetie..." Eleanor looked up at her with ADAM tears running down her cheeks. She continued, "...are you Eleanor?" I did not like having someone so close to my charge but she had stopped crying so, for that moment, I restrained myself.

Eleanor nodded as she continued to suffer from sporadic crying fits. The woman smiled and then asked, "Would you like to sing something with me?" The entire restaurant suddenly got quiet. Wiping her tears away with the side of her left hand, my daughter nodded in response. I cringed slightly.

The drawback to being prototypes was that both of us had traits that our more refined, mass produced counterparts did not. In Eleanor's case, like me, she retained a larger amount of humanity than what her appearance would suggest. Unlike her sisters, she had a sense of who she had been. She would tinker with machines, ask me about the surface, and asked me to help her find someone named Amir. Sometimes, to my dread, she would ask me if "Mommy" was back yet.

I could tell that she did not have complete memories of who she was though. For example, when I asked her why she tinkered with machines, she replied that she was not sure and that it just felt like a strange urge that she did not understand. Having known her before both of us had been turned into what we were now, I knew why. I wanted to tell her, and, a few times, I had tried to tell her. However, her Little Sister brainwashing prevented her from understanding when I did try to tell her about who she had been.

Unlike the other Little Sisters, who only acknowledged other people's existence when they were either unfortunate or foolish enough to get too close, Eleanor would actively engage with others as we passed them in streets. Of course, that made my job much more difficult, both physically and mentally, as people sometimes got the impression that they could interact with Eleanor. I did not enjoy hurting people like that. They meant well, and I knew it. However, my Protector Instincts dictated that I had to take action.

The woman motioned for Eleanor to follow her up to the microphone. I let out a grunt, but Eleanor assured me, "I'll be okay Daddy. Besides, you're right here." Despite how uneasy as I was, the look on her face was too happy for me to stop her. As strong as I was, I had a huge Achilles's Heel: Eleanor. I would do anything for her if it made her happy.

I stayed alert for any signs of trouble as the two made their way up to the microphone. When they got there, Anna asked Eleanor, "What song would you like to sing, Eleanor?"

My baby girl thought for a moment before she replied enthusiastically, "Daddy's song!" Anna smiled despite the confusion in her eyes. Eleanor giggled before she motioned for the woman to come closer. Anna bent down and my daughter whispered something into her left ear. I saw her smile and then lean back up.

She turned to the men behind them and said, "Annette Hanshaw...Daddy won't you please come home?"

The men looked at each other again, but this time, the lead said, "Let's just do it so the metal daddy doesn't come after us." The others nodded and they began to gather the necessary instruments. I noticed a crowd beginning to gather. I raised my drill as I let out a threatening call. They retreated a little bit. Meanwhile, Anna had lowered the microphone on the stand a little bit and given Eleanor a microphone to hold in her free left hand.

When the musicians were set, the woman motioned for them to start. Moments later, the euphoric beat of old ragtime began to fill the restaurant. After the brief instrumental beginning, the woman began by singing, "When night is creepin', and I should be sleepin' in bed."

To my surprise, Eleanor took over and sang with her lovely voice, "If you were peepin', you'd find that I'm weepin' instead."

Anna smiled at her little partner before she sang, "My lovin' daddy left his baby again."

Eleanor giggled before she sang, "Said he'd come back, but he forgot to say when."

Anna sang, "Night after night...I'm cryin'."

As more and more people began to gather to listen, I moved up to stand closer to my daughter in case they tried something. Meanwhile, both of them sang, "Daddy, won't you please come home? Daddy, won't you please come home? I'm so lonesome."

I noticed Ryan looking up towards us with a look of mild interest on his weathered face. Anna sang, "No one can fill that vacant chair."

Eleanor took over by singing, "Home isn't home when you're not there."

Looking down at her little partner, the woman sang, "No need to knock, the door is open for you."

Looking back up at her, Eleanor sang, "Please daddy, even the clock keeps tickin'."

As much as I was glad that my sweet little Eleanor was enjoying herself, I was growing uneasy with how much attention we were attracting. For the most part, the people that were gathering around seemed to be more interested in just witnessing this bizarre spectacle than getting the ADAM that was inside my daughter's belly and needle. However, I knew that it was only a matter of time before we would have a problem.

Both of them sang, "Daddy, won't you please come home? Daddy, do you have to roam so very long?"

Anna took over by singing, "There's lots of other new sheiks who would like to be sheik-in'."

Eleanor sang, "Haven't slipped yet, but I'm liable to weaken."

Then, they both sang, "Daddy, daddy won't you please come home?"

The musicians took over for moment. Meanwhile, I was scanning the crowd for the telltale sign of ADAM withdraw in their eyes. ADAM withdraw was brutal, I knew that personally from the few times that we had come up empty when we were out searching for "angels". The precious little that we did find I told Eleanor to take so that she would not suffer from hunger.

Unfortunately, that left me without any for myself. The shaking, the painful body spasms, and the voices in your head were enough to break all but the strongest of individuals. Even as a Big Daddy, it would leave me severely weakened during the next search. Of course, I hid it so that Eleanor would not worry or feel bad for not finding any. She was a child, my child, so I did my best to shield her from the reality of our lives.

There was nothing more dangerous than a Splicer having an ADAM withdraw. One moment, they were perfectly normal people. The next, they were screaming homicidal maniacs.

The two singers continued when Anna sang, "Please daddy, even the clock keeps tickin'."

Eleanor took over, "Daddy, won't you please come home? Daddy, do you have to roam so very long? There's lots of other new sheiks who would like to be sheik-in'."

Anna sang, "Haven't slipped yet, but I'm liable to weaken."

Eleanor finished with a slow, angelic voice, "Daddy, daddy won't you please come home?"

As the music died down, Anna added, "That's all." The crowd around the dance area clapped and cheered for their performance, though they could have been trying to stay on my good side. I heard Eleanor politely thank the woman, who returned it with an equally polite statement.

Seconds later, I felt her small left hand grasp mine. I glanced down to see a drowsy look on her face. She said, "I'm ready for dreamtime, Daddy." I grunted in acknowledgement and then kneeled to allow her to get on her throne. She giggled tiredly as she climbed up.

She informed me when she was up by lightly tapping the top of my head. I stood and began to make my way out of the restaurant. The crowd parted to allow us to pass but just to be safe, I held my drill at the ready. Luckily, they had enough sense still left in their heads not to try anything. As I passed Ryan and his little party, I let out a low threatening growl. When I had walked a few steps away, I heard Ryan comment, "Slave."

I paused. The restaurant grew quiet once again. Without turning to face the man, I gave off a groan. From where she was riding on my back, Eleanor chirped, "Daddy says that everyone is a slave because civilization is based on a mutual agreement amongst a group of self-interested individuals in the interest of mutual protection from each other. He says that individuals have since become slaves to the systems of protection because they know that they are better off with them than without them."

There were some approving murmurings from the patrons of the restaurant. However, Ryan quieted them by asking, "You dare to bastardize Thomas Hobbes's philosophy? Tell me Delta, what makes you, a slave without a face, think that you are fit to judge the rest of us? Why...you are merely the bodyguard of that...thing...on your back...a servant...a slave to her every whim."

I let out a laugh in the form of a series of grunts before I replied with a groan. Eleanor translated, "Daddy says not to mess up your monkey suit by getting your tail feathers ruffled over little ol' him. He says to enjoy your evening because a war is coming. He also says that you, Mr. Ryan, are going to have to watch your city being strangled by "The Great Chain" because there is nothing that you can do to stop it now." I let out a quick groan. Eleanor finished, "Oh, and that Sofia Lamb and Frank Fontaine send their regards."

With that, I slowly stomped out of the restaurant. My memory ended. Given the devastation of the resort, I would not be surprised if I had been right and that war had come to Rapture. My radio activated and the woman's voice from before said, "Ah-at last, a signal. You, who are bringing this dead city to life, listen. My name, it is Tenenbaum. I know who you are...and I am in much need of your help. Please-find me in the Atlantic Express Train Station."

I recognized the name. Tenenbaum had been the one who discovered ADAM in those sea slugs. I had heard that she had gone crazy with guilt for what she had done to the little girls that had been turned into Little Sisters. Several of my brothers had been put in solitary confinement after she had turned their bonded daughters back into regular little girls. Luckily, most of us, including Eleanor and I, had been out gathering when the incident took place.

Despite what she had done to my brothers, allies in Rapture were scarce so I needed to play along for the time being. She claimed to know me so maybe she knew where I could find Eleanor. It was likely a trap, but I had no choice, especially now that I had no knowledge of what shape the rest of the city was in or where Eleanor was. If I was fortunate enough, Tenenbaum would not betray me and even send me in the right direction to find my daughter.

Leaving the pool area through the now accessible security door, I began to make my way through the resort. I had to find the kidnapped Little Sister and get her away from that creature before any harm could come to her. Moving forward, I noticed a Rosie Big Daddy at the far end of the hallway just beyond a leaking window. The water that was leaking through the compromised seam trickled down the stairs beneath my feet. It was not a large leak, but, given the pressure of the ocean, it was not going to be long before the entire seam would submit to the waters of the Atlantic.

Seeing the blue neon sign "Dames", I decided to investigate. My quick search resulted in a medkit, which I applied to myself; the excess red healing liquid went into the other storage tank on my back, and around fifty dollars. After placing the money in the special hollow compartment located along my weighted diving belt, I began to leave the bathroom area. However, as I passed through the flooded area between the bathroom stalls and the lockers, I heard another Splicer approaching.

With my drill at the ready, I made my way to confront the deranged denizen. Upon turned right to towards the entrance to the side area, I saw a disfigured woman with a red pipe wrench in her right hand walking towards me. She cried out as she saw me. Before she could act, I electrocuted her with a blast of Electro Bolt and then followed up with a blow to the head with the point of my drill. The old combo resulted in the woman crumpling to the ground in a heap. Knowing better than to assume that she was no longer a threat, I made sure that she was dead by crushing in her skull with my left foot.

After exiting the side area, I made my way towards the Rosie Big Daddy. However, the Rivet Gun wielding brute was already gone and the seam had been repaired. I actually felt sorry for the Rosies. My brothers and I had been purposely-built protectors but the Rosies, and, to a lesser extent, the Bouncers had the extra burden of keeping Rapture maintained.

The Bouncers were a joke in both roles but the Rosies were just as proficient with using their Rivet Guns on leaking seams as they were with using them on attacking Splicers. If it ever came to a straight-up confrontation, I would have to be wary of the Rosies' tactical prowess and their powerful Rivet Guns.

Turning left, I made my way towards the next security gate. As the gate raised, I saw two more Splicers searching through the large pool of water that dominated the majority of the visible room. Above them, I saw a kind of bridge that ran from one side of the room to the other. One of them was a woman dressed in tattered aristocratic attire, who was complaining about not having had the taste of ADAM in weeks, and the other was a man dressed in tattered medical doctor attire.

I mentally sighed. They made it too easy sometimes. Before they knew that I was there, I electrocuted the pool of water with a blast of Electro Bolt. As they howled in agony with blue electric arcs dancing around their bodies, I cried out with a long grunt as I felt my EVE system replenishing the EVE in my body with some from my reserve tank. It did not hurt exactly since it was an intravenous connection; it just felt unnatural for those first few moments because I could feel the cold substance circulate through my body along with my warm blood.

No sooner had the Splicers collapsed and begin to float on the surface of the water before the public service announcement loudspeakers activated. As I listened, the voice of the Splicer that had taken Eleanor from me and made me kill myself announced, "Attention! This is Dr. Sofia Lamb with a message for the people. Remember, you are not alone. Think of me not as leader, but as mother to the Rapture Family."

I mentally cursed. That was Sofia Lamb? She had been the one that had kidnapped Eleanor? I had never met her in person before she made me kill myself so I had no way of knowing that that had been her. I had been wrong. She really was her mother. Regardless, she had no right to traumatize my daughter like she had done. The woman was clearly out of her mind. Worse, she was so delusional that she did not realize how crazy she actually was. I had to get Eleanor away from her.

Moving along the left path, I hurried to other end of the room with renewed urgency. I hardly paid any attention to the advertisement of a couple with the words, "Health and Happiness through Genetics" on its faded surface. Upon reaching the advertisement, I heard the sound of repetitive thudding. Turning my body to the right, I saw a dead Rosie Big Daddy slumped against the wall. The security gate before it seemed unable to close for some reason.

Upon reaching it, I found the Rosie's Rivet Gun at the bottom of the doorframe. When the gate tried to close, it hit the Rivet Gun in a shower of sparks. As the gate rose back up, I quickly grabbed the tool by its muzzle with my gloved left hand and removed it from the doorframe.

As I held the tool in my hand, I examined it briefly. A few of my brothers had specialized in the usage of Prototype Rivet Guns that were designed for combat instead of repairing. While I could wield them with deadly accuracy and understood the benefits of ranged weaponry, I found the rush of killing Splicers with my drill much more fulfilling than simply squeezing a trigger and watching the individual die.

With my drill, I got the pleasure of cracking the Splicer's skull open. The sight of the mixture of confusion and fright in their eyes, the roaring of my drill's motor, the warmth of their lifeblood spilling onto my leather and canvas hide, and the sight of the light fading from their eyes all made combat with my drill addicting. Besides, the weapons of Rapture were prone to malfunction due to inadequate maintenance in a wet environment. While the flimsy lead shooters were malfunctioning, I had usually closed the distance and given the Splicer a taste of my steel. Given the cramped confines of the city streets, I rarely had to worry about being out in the open.

After tossing the weapon down to the feet of the dead tin man, I moved forward through the open security gate. To my left, there was a medical clinic. To my right, a path went somewhere out of sight but given the large sign of "Rapture Metro" above its entrance, I assumed that it went down to awaiting submarines. Before me was a set of stairs going up to the next security gate with two television monitors on either side of the landing. To my left, next to the entrance to the medical clinic, was a green lounge chair that had an EVE HYPO lying on its mothball eaten cushion.

A remnant of Ryan Security was muttering to himself as he paced around just before the landing of the stairs. Whatever personal Hell was inside his mind, it was bad enough to cause him to have his hands up around his head, including the revolver in his right hand. His faded coat with the trademark gold "R" on the back, matching hat, and matching attire were covered with all manner of filth as well as sporadic tears. I could tell that his Webley Mk IV revolver was on its last legs as it had a hairline crack in its barrel.

Making as much noise as possible to attract his attention, I hurried into the medical clinic. My maneuver proved to be wise as I saw another Splicer, a woman with an ornate mask covering her face and wielding a large pipe wrench, appear from the right path. Letting out cries, they both chased me into the clinic. Mindlessly, they funneled through the same entrance that I had used.

As the woman swung her wrench, I sent an uppercut with my drill into her throat. Warm blood gushed out of her severed carotid artery onto my drill and chest. As she staggered forward, gasping with squelching noises, I swung my drill to the right. The side of my tool caught her on the right side of her head and sent her flying to the right as she rattled her final breath. The revolver wielding Splicer shot me with his .38 caliber weapon, causing me to give off an enraged roar. The pain vanished as the healing liquid inside my tank worked its magic on my wound.

Before he could shoot again, I ducked behind the blind on the other side of the red clinic chair. As he ran around the side of the blind, I rushed forward. My charge closed the distance. Before he could react, I had sent my drill into his weapon. The weakened frame of the revolver shattered like a window pane hit with a rock. The unarmed Splicer had a comical look of confusion on his wrinkled face before I sent the point of my drill into his face. Moments later, after grabbing the free medkit, I left the room as I gave off a victorious groan.

I started to go down the right-hand path, but I halted dead in my tracks as I caught a whiff of the familiar scent of Eleanor. Turning towards the stairs, I realized that the scent was coming from the other side of the security door. As if in a trance, I mindlessly walked towards the stairs. The monitor on the left side of the landing emitted the image of Sofia Lamb and the words, "AND NOW A WORD FROM DR. LAMB."

The monitor on the right side of the landing displayed one of the old public service videos about not disturbing the Little Sisters. I laughed slightly upon seeing the video. If Sofia needed these videos, her "Rapture Family" was not as unified as she probably wanted. Moving past the art deco statues as I climbed the stairs, I saw the giant blue with gold leaf sign of "Adonis Luxury Resort" above the door.

When the gate rose, I was met by the sight of a Little Sister singing to herself while she was gathering alone and in the dark. As I approached, my head-mounted light powered on to illuminate her. She looked like the other Little Sister except that she had a yellow and white dress. Her back was turned to me as she continued to gather ADAM from the corpse of a mummified man in front of another ornate golden globe with the blue words "Adonis Luxury Resort" in the center of it.

I was already too close. Metaphorical alarm bells went off my head and I readied myself to face the onslaught of her protector. However, seconds passed and yet I failed to hear the incoming thundering footsteps and war-like, rage-filled whale cry. After a moment, it dawned on me: she did not have a protector.

Outraged that yet another Little Sister had been left to fend for herself in this icebox, I moved towards her to protect her. Something was wrong here. One would have just been the carelessness of her tin man protector. This was a second. This was something else entirely. What the fuck was going on here? Where were all the Big Daddies? Why were these Little Sisters not in company of a protector?

As I neared her, she stood up and looked at me. With a huge smile on her face, she hopped several times while waving at me. I smiled slightly beneath my face as I began to bend down so that she could stand on the specially built carrier on my back. However, I shot back up as the ear-shattering shriek filled the air. I called back with a threatening guttural roar as I realized that it was that creature. It was going to try to hurt this Little One too?! Not if I had anything to say about it!

I saw the red eye appear on the second floor landing. I went to prepare myself to defend the Little Sister but, to my surprise, the little girl informed me, "Shh! Daddy, Big Sister doesn't want you playing with me." I lowered my guard as her words hit home. Big Sister? That skinny creature of metal was an older Little Sister? So, she was a protector too? I felt slightly relieved because this had all just been a misunderstanding. There was no reason for us to fight since we were both protectors.

However, I soon paid the price for dropping my guard. The Big Sister leaped from the landing to the top of the globe. Then, before I could react, she jumped onto my chest. I grunted in shock as she glared down at me with her red eye as she growled at me for a moment. Before I could explain that I was just an old Big Daddy and therefore not a threat to her charge, she back flipped off me, rolled backwards through the air, and landed on her feet a few yards away.

The aggression in her stance informed me that she had no intention to listen to me. Raising my drill and my left hand, I entered a combat stance. Noticing that she was standing in a pool of water, I willed a blast of Electro Bolt out of my left hand. My plasmid assault struck the lithe armored adolescent and she shrieked as electric arcs danced around her body. However, much faster than I predicted, she recovered. She rushed forward and I just barely managed to dodge her by moving to the left.

The tip of the large needle-like attachment on her left arm penetrated deep into the metal security door where I had been standing seconds prior. Still having reservations about fighting a grown Little Sister, I did not take advantage of her brief vulnerability and let out a groan to try to talk to her. She was a grown Little Sister, but a Little Sister nonetheless. She would understand what I was saying.

Again however, she made me pay the price for my inaction as she ripped her needle out of the security gate and stabbed me in my chest. I grunted in surprise but luckily, I still had plenty of healing liquid in my tank. After back flipping away again, she sent several Incinerate! blasts at me. I managed to dodge them. Unable to bring myself to attack her beyond that first Electro Bolt blast, I merely continued to dodge her attacks.

Her agility, strength, and plasmid abilities were astounding. Not even Spider Splicers could compete with her agility. Her strength was on par with my own. Her plasmid abilities were far superior to my own. As she flipped and jumped in and out of my line of sight while she continued to attack me, I had never felt so old. Our sleek design made my brothers and I the most agile Big Daddies in Rapture but this Big Sister was moving around me as if I was standing still.

My luck finally ran out as she began to herd me up the large flight of stairs in the center of the room. At the very top of the stairs, I found a baby stroller and a large quantity of water pouring in from the ceiling. The stairs came to a drop off that went straight down to the bar and small restaurant below. As my left foot stepped next to the edge, it gave way, causing me to have to move to avoid tumbling down with it.

I heard the lithe girl laugh sadistically as she began to line up for the charge that would send me flying over the edge. Eleanor's beautiful smiling face and my memory of her singing the line, "Daddy, daddy won't you please come home?" filled my mind. It was between protecting my Eleanor and hurting this feral, grown Little Sister. Realizing that I did not have a choice now except to defend myself, I turned my body to face her completely.

As she rushed towards me, I groaned an apology. Then, my Protector Instincts took over. Her charge made her vulnerable. I took advantage of this by unleashing a blast of Electro Bolt. She shrieked in pain as the blue arcs danced around her armored form. I cracked her across her bulbous metal face with the point of my drill, creating a cloud of sparks.

With a combination of Electro Bolt blasts and drill swings, I forced her partially back down the stairs. Around halfway up the stairs, I hit her with another blast of Electro Bolt. However, this time, I cocked my right arm all the way down to the left before swinging it all the way back to strike the Big Sister full force across the side of her head. My blow lifted her off her feet and sent her tumbling through the air.

She crashed into the globe in a tremendous cloud of sparks, demolishing the metal structure with a loud vibrating noise. As I approached, I revved up my drill as I anticipated for her to fight to the death. However, to my surprise, she let out an ear-shattering shriek before she retreated away through a boarded-up entrance to an adjacent area of the resort. I powered down my drill. Relieved that I did not have to murder the grown sister heartlessly, I took the time to scavenge through the nearby bar.

As I did, the public service announcement loudspeaker system activated. I heard the voice of Sofia say, "This is Dr. Sofia Lamb with a message for the people. Remember, Big Sister is always watching. To steal ADAM is to steal from the Rapture Family, your family." I let out an enraged growl even though I knew that she could not hear me. That cruel woman was forcing these poor girls to act as her "boogeymen" to keep the remaining population in line.

I scoffed at the thought. One trained dogs and unfortunately, in some circumstances, children the same way. The combination of fear and love would keep the dog or child in a state of docility as it sought to please its master or parent figure. It was a classic reward/punish training method, timeless and still just as effective as it had been at the dawn of time.

My search resulted in a medkit, some drill fuel, and twenty more dollars. Despite my attempts to find an alternate path, I found that I only had one way to go. As I moved through the crumbling restaurant called "Demeter's Banquet Hall", I reflected on how different Rapture was now.

Before, yes, it was a monument to what egotism could accomplish in exchange for a few people being trampled in the wake of progress. However, it was never depressing or a warning to those who dared to believe that humanity should be let off the leash of governmental control. Now, it was Hell on Earth, plain and simple. I had to get Eleanor out of here! Even if it once again cost me my life, I would ensure that she got to see the Sun. I would gain redemption in her eyes!

Towards the back of the crumbling area, I saw the Big Sister dart away. Not wanting to frighten her into a final stand, I waited for a moment before continuing. During that time, I read the message written on the wall with white house paint. "WE WILL BE REBORN IN THE COLD WOMB OF THE OCEAN".

Figuring that enough time had passed, I moved forward. I came to the upper landing. I grunted in annoyance when I saw that the only way forward was to fall down to the bottom floor. The majority of the bottom floor, which was once the dinning area, of course, was flooded with the icy cold water of the Atlantic Ocean. After bracing myself for the sting of the frigid water, I carefully dropped down to the bottom floor.

The moment that I hit the water, my world slowed as I heard the cry of the Big Sister and the unmistakable sound of metal on glass. Looking up with dread, I saw her jumping from one end of the room to the other as she ran her needle-like weapon across the surface of the huge glass panel against the back wall. The razor sharp point of her weapon compromised the glass panel and streams of water began to pour into the room. She hit the ground and turned towards me. After giving off a sadistic laugh, she bolted to the right out of my line of sight.

Before I could do anything, the entire glass panel submitted to the force of the water behind it. As it gave way, the waters of the Atlantic rushed in to claim their prize. As the wall of water roared towards me, I cringed because I knew that I was about to be very cold. Seconds later, the wall of frigid water collided with me.


	3. Chapter 3: Welcome to Rapture

Ch. 3: Welcome to Rapture

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry it took so long. Normally, I try to update every week.

Thank you to everyone that fav'ed and followed my story! I appreciate it!

Read and review if you want.

* * *

I shuddered as the icy waters overtook my body. Despite my spliced Big Daddy physique, my body was still sensitive to such things. Luckily, my metal lungs provided me with a practically endless supply of oxygen and my canvas and leather skin protected me from the extreme conditions of this alien landscape. When my vision returned, I found the entire room flooded. Thick, green mud covered everything near the now warped gaping hole where the windowpanes had been. The force of the water had pushed the bronze statues almost back to where I was. The ceiling had partially collapsed, leaving tiny pieces of rubble in my path.

Looking around me, I saw more utter devastation. The room was almost unrecognizable. The lights flickered as they fought on vainly to provide illumination for the restaurant patrons that were long-gone. Remains of paper and cloth filled the water around me. Schools of fish swam past me as they eagerly explored this new virgin territory. I was filled with a strange feeling of loss as a once beautiful wooden table floated past me. It reminded me of exploring shipwrecks in my previous life.

In my previous life, I had always been fond of the sea. Its elusive mysteries always held me in awe in a way that few other things could. It seemed like I was one of the few individuals that the cruel, heartless mistress of the sea took pity on as I had survived things during my career as a U.S. Navy Master Diver that defied explanation. Countless times, my comrades had believed that my demise had finally come only for me to surface nearby due to a freak gas expulsion from the seabed or some other phenomena that had miraculously saved my life.

Before me, in the huge pile of debris and mud, was a "u" shaped depression that was just wide enough for me to get through. Not wanting to be in the freezing Atlantic water longer than I had to be, I began to force my way forward. Everything echoed in my head as I made my way towards the hole. Beyond, I saw two beams of light that, upon closer inspection, came from the wrecked remains of a submersible just beyond the hole. At least, I thought that they were coming from the submersible. As I neared the remains of the stage that was beside the glass panels, I realized that the lights were coming from giant metal housings. Whether they were placed there intentionally to illuminate the sea floor or were the remains of this ruined resort, I did not know.

The submersible itself only had two flickering lights on either side of its compromised central glass window located in the front. As I began to pass through the hole, my radio activated. The thick German accented voice of Tenenbaum piped through my radio as she said, "In that suit, even the ocean cannot harm you. This is good. But Rapture is the death of many great men. Alone, you will not survive long. You can still reach the train station- find me there."

With nowhere to go but forward, I entered the abyss beyond the hole. As I neared the wrecked bathysphere, I saw a light flicker on inside of it. A trail of bubbles blocked my view of the interior until I was standing just outside the compromised vehicle. Inside, I saw two bodies. As I looked at the two bodies, a memory broke loose inside my mind.

* * *

"Hey, you awake down there old man?" My diving helmet's radio barked unceremoniously.

Groaning, I replied, "Affirmative topside." Being mindful of the fact that I was still tethered to the diving bell, I continued searching for the reason of my extremely hazardous mission. The thick darkness of the ocean floor made it impossible to see more than three feet in front of me. I had passed several small wrecks, likely commercial fishing trawlers. However, so far, I had yet to discover a reason for their sinking. Their hulls were compromised by the impact with the bottom so I could not definitively determine the cause of their demise.

My radio activated once again as the topside U.S. Navy Research Vessel contacted me, "Any luck finding that Nazi or Red Outpost yet, Chief?" Following several naval vessels being mysteriously lost south of Iceland, we had been tasked with locating a caused for the losses. Command believed that the Nazis had somehow created an outpost under the ocean originally so their U-Boats could resupply safely, but now, with the fall of the Third Reich, they were using it as a staging post for guerrilla-style resistance and possibly even wanted to create a new Reich. However, the newest generation of officers believed that the Soviets had a secret base in the area and were planning to use the facility as a launch site for their nuclear warheads.

I replied, "Negative. I have located several commercial fishing vessels but was unable to determine the cause of their sinking. Continuing search."

My assistant said, "Copy that, sir."

After searching for another few minutes, I began to worry that we were in the wrong area. However, just as I was about to give up and return to the diving bell, a cluster of lights to my right caught my attention. As I made my way towards the light, I informed topside, "Hold on, I may have something here..."

Coming over a rise on the seafloor, I suddenly came face-to-face with something impossible. A giant underwater city loomed before me like a sparkling jewel beneath the ocean. As if in a trance, I slowly walked towards it as a feeling of awe overwhelmed me. It was the most spectacular thing that I had ever seen. Neon lights advertised products unknown on the surface, gigantic skyscrapers rose up from the seafloor like mountains of metal, glass, and light, and other evidence of prosperity were immediately apparent. The city looked like a beacon of hope compared to the Hellish world above. However, as I neared it, my trance was broken as I was rudely awakened to the situation.

An angry voice suddenly piped through my radio, "What is this that knocks on the door of MY city? Who sent you parasite? The wolf or the jackal?"

Remaining calm, I replied, "Neither, sir. I assure you, I am simply a deep sea explorer. I am investigating the loss of ships in this part of the ocean. I meant no trespass on your property. I will just be leaving now." I went to leave, but the man stopped me.

He said, "No, parasite. You will not be leaving. I _assure_ you that you will not live long enough to return to your bell. I had been tempted to let you and your comrades live until you were unfortunate enough to see the lights from my city."

As a feeling of cold erupted inside my mind, my assistant from the surface contacted me, "Sir! We're under attack! Get out of th..." His voice was suddenly cut as I heard the sound of gunfire.

My mind was briefly shell-shocked from the sudden turn of events. Then, my survival instincts kicked in as I began to locate a way into the city. Since the city would need periodic exterior maintenance, there must have been airlocks that allowed entrance into the city. I had to find one before the equalizing pressure inside my suit was released from the surface. If I did not, my entire body would implode from the extreme pressure of the ocean depths.

As I pushed my legs as fast as they would go, the angry man contacted me again. He said, "I apologize for the extreme measures that I have been forced to take. However, please understand parasite, I cannot allow your kind to feed on the body of my city. People are entitled to what they have earned. Your kind has no place here. Just relax and accept your fate, parasite. It will be over before you even feel it."

Refusing to die cold and alone in the mud and the dark of the ocean floor, I continued forward. Though it was just because I was paranoid, I felt as though I could already feel the air supply from the diving bell and ultimately from the surface getting thinner. The thick green and tan mud beneath my feet was like quicksand and I had to fight for every step. By the time that I had reached the side of one of the structures, I was completely exhausted and had to use the side of the underwater building to remain standing upright. Inside the building, I could see well-dressed people pointing at me as I leaned against one of the windows.

Noticing a worn trail in the mud, I followed it in hopes of finding an airlock. My strategy succeeded as I soon located a flooded, open airlock. With the last ounce of my energy, I heaved my body into the lock's barnacle encrusted interior. However, I faced one last obstacle: my tethered line to the diving bell. There was a chance that the line would prevent the airlock from completely sealing. Out of time and options, I steeled myself and proceeded to firmly grab the handle of the cycle switch located on the wall in a housing similar to a ship's telegraph.

I had no sooner used the last ounce of strength left in me to cycle the airlock before I gagged as seawater began to fill up my helmet through the tethered line. Luckily, the line was pinched shut by the exterior entrance of the airlock. However, without a supply of oxygen, I now faced the prospect of suffocating.

As the water in the lock drained away, I reached down and unscrewed my nonmagnetic beryllium copper diving knife from its brass sheath. Holding the wooden handle in my right hand and holding the line in my left hand, I began to saw through the compromised tether with the serrated edge of my knife.

I heard the other entrance open as I finished sawing through the line. My thoughts began to race as I felt fatigue hit me. Not even bothering to sheath my blade, I stomped out of the airlock. Upon hearing gasps, I looked up to see a group of children staring wide-eyed at me. They must have snuck into the maintenance bay to explore. One of them, a pale young girl with brown hair tied back into two ponytails bravely demanded with a British accented voice, "Your suit is not right. Who are you mister?"

My delirious, exhausted mind mistranslated the question as being "Where are you from mister?" Unable to continue, I dropped to my knees. As the children began to gather around me, I released my grip on my knife, which clattered against the floor. Just before darkness claimed me, I replied, "Top...topside...ma'am." Then, I collapsed onto my left side as darkness overtook my vision.

* * *

That had been how my nightmare started. By either dumb luck or perhaps fate, I had somehow managed to locate the one airlock that led to the maintenance bay where Eleanor and a group of her secret friends were exploring. If it had not been for her actions, Ryan's men would have found me. I shook my head as I barked at myself to focus. That was then and this was now. Eleanor needed me. My past was irrelevant. Eleanor was all that mattered.

Hearing a loud crash, I saw that one of the resort's signs had broken free from the building and landed directly in my path. Leaving the side of the bathysphere, I moved forward through the path between the large sections of rock that towered above me on either side. Upon reaching the red lettered obstacle, I stepped up on top of it with my heavy right foot and then stepped down on the other side. I was capable of jumping but the landing hurt too much for me to get into the habit of doing it.

Ahead of me, I saw a series of windows that allowed me to see the interior hallway of the nearby building. I began to walk towards it but let out a grunt when I saw the Little Sister skipping down the hallway past one of the vents. The vent resembled a beacon as it was the only object in the dark hallway that was illuminated. Stomping towards the side of the structure, my Protector Instincts began to make their presence known in my mind as I feared that another Little Sister was without an escort. Soon, however, I was met by the sight of another new protector.

This one was clearly not a grown Little Sister. Judging by its immense height and size, I ventured a guess that it was a new Big Daddy model. It did not appear to be as heavily armored as the Bouncer or Rosie. Moreover, it looked more cobbled together than the previous models. Ropes were used to hold armor plates along its canvas body and belts were used to secure a strange contraption that was mounted over its right shoulder in place.

Its face was not even solid. Instead, it had a weird canvas barrel looking design with two round portholes on the end with one being larger than the other and four portholes arranged in a circle along the middle of its bizarre elongated face. Its body resembled that of a Rosie's except without the muscular build, colorful skin, and external armor.

Had the fools at Ryan Industries finally wised up to the fact that they needed to stop favoring brawn over intelligence? The Bouncers were as clear of an indication of the superiority of the strength of the mind over raw muscle in combat as a child would have needed. Those lumbering tin men were a step in the wrong direction in my opinion.

As I moved closer, I was horrified to see a man appear and begin to fire his revolver at the pair. I let out a guttural roar as the artificial maddening fury of my programming erupted inside my mind. Rushing forward, I watched the new tin man as he defended his charge.

The giant lifted the child over his left shoulder and then threw what looked like a metal ball about the size of a softball in an arc towards the man. As the ball hit the ground, I saw that it was actually an automated miniature turret that began to fire small caliber rounds at the man. I felt my spirits lift as I witnessed the use of an automated turret for tactical fire suppression. Perhaps, I had been right about this new model.

However, to my complete dismay, the notion of a more intelligent model was dismissed as the protector rushed forward as he used a lever in his right hand to fire a rocket from the contraption mounted over his right shoulder. Rockets? Fucking typical! Even less brains with even more brawn! That rocket launcher would not be so cute once his enemies got straight in his face. What does he use for melee? His left fist?

My suspicion was confirmed when a disfigured female Splicer rushed from the other end of the hallway and started swinging her bent golf club into the tin man's back. The Big Daddy roared as he wheeled around and struck the woman in her face with his massive left fist. The blow was enough to snap the woman's neck. With all of the Splicers neutralized, the Big Daddy's portholes returned to their neutral yellow color. As the Little Sister began to make her way further into the building, the tin man observed me where I was just beyond the exterior of the window directly in front of him for a moment.

As he did, I raised my gloved left hand up, turned it around so the top was facing the brute, and then flipped the ridiculous protector my middle finger. This brute warranted even less of my respect than the other Mass Production Big Daddies. Some of my Alpha Series brethren specialized in rocket launchers but only if their weapons were modified to prevent damaging flashback both for themselves, and, more importantly, for their daughters.

This brute was more of a danger to himself and to his charge than he was to a Splicer. During that little confrontation, I had seen the poor girl's skin flash yellow from being hurt at least five times. Little Sisters were practically immortal, but I could personally attest that they felt pain like everyone else. Clearly somewhat put off by my blatant disrespect, the tin man turned around and followed his charge.

I turned to the right and continued forward towards the train station. Ahead of me, I saw the remains of a fishing trawler that I noticed, humorously, had a school of fish above it. Continuing, I passed underneath a school of jellyfish as I walked through the skeletal remains of a whale. Just beyond its skull, I noticed an advertisement for "Meal-Time Frozen Dinners". Happening to look up, I noticed the tail section of commercial airplane on the top of a large rock outcropping. Beneath the ocean growth, I saw that it was once white with blue detailing. Despite thinking that there had to be an interesting story with that one, I pressed ahead.

Up ahead, the path narrowed as it went through a large cave-like area. I followed the path for a moment. Then, as I went to the left, there, shinning less brightly than I remembered was Rapture. As I approached the hole that overlooked the city, I saw an anglerfish being devoured by a shark. Seconds later, a giant squid swam past.

I laughed with a grunt as I thought, 'There's always someone bigger and stronger than you, my friend. That's what I always told my brothers. That is why intelligence is better than brawn. React. Adapt. Overcome. The difference between an amateur and a professional is their proficiency with those three things.'

Looking slightly to the right, I noticed a billboard that had bold letters that read, "WELCOME TO RAPTURE". Below them, in smaller font was the phrase, "YOUR BEAUTIFUL CITY". I walked to the edge of the hole. I cringed when I saw that it was a straight drop down to the next section of seafloor. Steeling myself, I walked over the edge.

After falling several stories, I let out a loud anguished grunt when I landed on the top of what appeared to be a generator. Before me was a large air condition unit looking machine that had a trial of bubbles exiting out of the top where the fan blade was located. After taking the final plunge down to the, surprisingly clean looking, seafloor, I turned to my left. Before me were two large pipes that jutted out from the rock outcropping.

Moving forward, I passed beneath them to find the Atlantic Express Train Station. Relieved at the prospect of getting out of the icy water, I moved towards the building with renewed vigor. However, as I approached it, a Big Sister, possibly the same one from the resort, appeared. I paused as I did not want to frighten her into a fight. Once again demonstrating her impressive physical abilities, she jumped up and then swiveled around to face me as she paused by the yellow "Atlantic Express Maintenance Depot" sign that was a good two stories above the ocean floor.

After staring me down for a moment with her Hellish red eye, she jumped once again except, this time, she continued up and even began to swim. I lost sight of her as she swam beyond the top of the building. I felt a wave of sympathy for the poor adolescent. What had this city done to her? Teenagers were supposed to be concentrating on trivial matters that seemed important during this stage of their life, not intimidating an armored diving suit clad monster at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the ruins of a once thriving city.

Seeing the open airlock with two statues of Poseidon wielding a triton on either side of the entrance, I moved towards it. Upon entering the airlock, I moved to the far left corner where the cycle switch was located. Gripping the handle with my left hand, I cycled the airlock. Moments later, the water finished draining and I waited for the second door to open. As I did, my radio activated. Tenenbaum sounded genuinely grateful as she said, "Ah, Herr Delta...you arrive, as the little ones said you would. Come upstairs to the ticket booth, and I will offer what I know of you."

Know of me? Is that what she thought I had come all this way for? I knew perfectly well what and who I was. Whatever, as long as she could point me in the right direction to find Eleanor, I did not care. Eleanor was the important thing. Everything else was just a ghost of my past. A dinging noise riled me from my thoughts. The interior entrance to the airlock opened to reveal a heavily encrusted maintenance bay. Directly in front of me at the opposite side of the room was a male "Thuggish" Splicer. Upon seeing me, he fled deeper into the building.

Moving forward in a combat stance with my drill at the ready and blue electrical arcs dancing around my left hand, I began to make my way towards Tenenbaum. The crustaceans crunched beneath my armored feet as I moved forward. Overhead, a giant fan grinded in its housing as it slowly rotated. Hanging down from the ceiling were several abandoned diving suits that heavily resembled the Rosies' armor. The fan cast eerie shadows in the room as I passed beneath it.

After searching the lockers for anything useful, which resulted in some drill fuel, an EVE Hypo, and a few cans of food that I discarded as I had long since lost the need for food, I continued forward. The distorted sound of a song filled the air with its haunting, ghostly tones as I proceeded after the rambling Splicer. After climbing a set of stairs, I came to a sign that read, "Atlantic Express Maintenance Facility". Turning right, I saw another set of stairs and made my way towards them. All awhile, the Splicer was continuing to ramble as if he was talking to someone.

Eventually, as I passed a useless Vita-Chamber and the overhead mail tube, I saw the deranged individual. He was messing with one of the doors a few feet ahead of me. Realizing what he was about to do, I grunted threateningly as I stomped towards him. He cried out in terror and retreated further into the building. However, before I could reach it in time, the security bulkhead closed and remained closed due to the Splicer's jerry-rigging.

As I approached the bulkhead, my radio activated. Tenenbaum said with noticeable disgust, "Now, most who survive are like this. Splicers. They are drug addicts, vicious animals." Standing before the slightly discolored metal security gate, I let out a frustrated groan that echoed through the hallways of the flooding depot. Out of irritation, I thrust my drill into the gate. My strike left a gouge in the bulkhead and created sparks but otherwise was fruitless.

A fully enraged Bouncer was capable of muscling his way through a security gate and I had personally witnessed a clever Rosie use his mines to demolition his way through one once. However, I was unsure if Alpha Series Big Daddies possessed the raw muscular fortitude to accomplish such a feat. I did not doubt my kind's abilities. I simply had never attempted such a feat and I had never witnessed one of my brothers attempt it.

Perhaps, I needed to take my own advice and utilize my intelligence rather than continuing to rely upon my body. These gates were controlled, of all things, electronically. For being built by geniuses, this city had some rather amateur designs in its construction. Surrounded by water at the bottom of the ocean, yet half of the city relied upon electrical systems for its fail-safe security measures. No wonder the city was flooding. If I could just find some way to reach the control panel on the other side of the gate, I could get the gate open.

Looking around, I noticed the side room to my right. Upon entering the room, I saw a strange looking device on the table to the left. As I neared it, I saw a little dispenser for darts of some kind on the wall and a diagram for the device. Upon inspection, the diagram revealed the device to be a "remote hack device".

As useful as that would be, I would have to detach my drill in order to use it. Detaching my drill was the one thing that I avoided if I could get away with it. 'This is my drill! There are many like it but this one is mine! Without me, my drill is useless! Without my drill, I am useless!'

Looking at the window, I noticed that it was broken just enough to allow a blast of Electro Bolt to pass through it and into the control panel for the door on the far wall near the gate. If I could introduce a big enough of a jolt into the system, the circuit would read it as a command to open the door and would reverse the locking mechanism. Focusing on hitting the panel, I willed a blast of Electro Bolt out of my left hand and into the panel. My tactic worked and the door opened. Returning to the hallway, I continued forward.

Just beyond the gate, I found a Security Bot on the floor. Designed by Gilbert Alexander, the same man that designed the Alpha Series and our unique bonds with our daughters, the odd machine resembled an outboard boat motor that someone had modified to carry a belt-fed Thompson submachine gun whose ammunition was supplied by a small fruit crate mounted on the back of the machine. Using the helicopter-like propellers located on the top and the existing propeller at the bottom of the foot, the device was the airborne menace of Rapture. Once the Security Cameras identified an intruder, the Security Bots would attack in endless waves of pairs until the target was dead, the camera was hacked, or the alarm's time limit ran out.

It was grinding its props onto the floor as if it was trying to get airborne. Standing next to it, I had to admit that having an ally, however temporary, would be a nice change of pace. Kneeling down, I inspected the machine. I was not an engineer by any stretch of the imagination nor did I have any fancy degrees like the man who designed these machines. However, I had been working with my hands to make a living since I was old enough to work.

The hardware was basic, which was no surprise, and what the eggheads would call the "CPU" was located just above the mounted weapon in a rectangular housing. The device would need an inhibitor for the periods of storage. Therefore, if I could just find it and bypass the wiring to it, I could rig the machine to be constantly active. Once I reactivated it, the machine would seek out the nearest radio frequency, which, in my case, theoretically would be from the one built into in my head.

After a moment, I managed to locate the inhibitor and disconnected the wire running to it. With the inhibitor bypassed, I stood and placed my right foot on top of the machine. Firmly grasping the pull start rope's handle in my gloved left hand, I pulled back on it in a smooth motion. Giving off a loud shrill noise, the machine powered to life as its motor briefly ejected black smoke. The green light emitting from the round lights mounted on the front indicated that the machine was friendly. With my escort, I began to move forward once again.

On the wall ahead of me, written with white house paint, was the phrase, "WE WILL BE REBORN". Beneath it was a kind of shrine made with around a dozen lit white candles. Moving into the room beyond, I turned to see the shadow of the Splicer as he retreated further into the building. I mentally sighed as I wondered if the Splicer thought that he was being clever by luring me into an ambush.

Calmly proceeding after him, I soon found myself in a workshop. A greenish monorail-style train was mounted in the center of the room by an overhead track. Around the abandoned vehicle were the remains of the worktables and tools that the workers once used to repair it. Now, of course, the sounds of repairing and idle chatter were long-gone. In their place, the sounds of the Splicers laughing to each other while they waited for me to appear filled the air.

Moving into the workshop, I prepared myself for the coming confrontation. As I neared the center of the room, a loud cracking sound rocked the air and seconds later, the train crashed to the flooded floor of the repair bay beneath it. As if the dinner bell had been rung, Splicers came charging out from where they had been hiding. To my left, a woman with a welding mask covering her face and wielding a section of pipe rushed towards me. In the far right corner of the room, another Splicer ran towards me.

My Security Bot gave off an alarm and began to fire its submachine gun at the Splicer at the other end of the room. Focusing on the woman, I electrocuted her with a blast of Electro Bolt. As she cried out in agony while blue electric arcs danced around her disfigured body, I swung the razor sharp tip of my drill into her face. The welding mask might as well have been paper as my hardened steel tool easily penetrated the thin mask.

The sound of crunching bone filled the air and the usual squirt of blood flew out of the open wound as the Splicer crumpled to the ground. I had no time to celebrate as I let out an enraged roar when a pipe wrench struck me in my right shoulder. Swinging my drill all the way back behind me, I struck the male Splicer full force in the side of his head with the side of my drill.

The force of my blow lifted the man off his feet and launched him several feet through the air. He smashed against the side of the wall and then collapsed unceremoniously into a heap at the base of the wall. He, of course, had been dead before his feet had even left the ground as the force of my blow had broken his neck and shattered his skull instantly.

Seconds after I had dispatched my two assailants, the loudspeaker system activated. The voice of my daughter's kidnapper announced, "This is a message from Doctor Sofia Lamb. Andrew Ryan is dead, but the tyrant dwells within us all. Remember, we reject the gene; we reject the self, we reject the tyrant."

I was stunned by the revelation. Andrew Ryan was dead? As overjoyed as I was by this news, I felt a sense of disappointment because I had wanted to be the one that killed him. Shrugging off my feeling of disappointment, I focused back on getting to Tenenbaum. Seeing the health station mounted against the wall on the left, I moved over to it and destroyed it with my drill. After refilling the red tank on my back with the health kit, I searched the room quickly for supplies.

My search resulted in eight dollars, more drill fuel, which I had to ignore because my reserve tank was already full, and another can of useless food. Continuing forward, I found that the massive security bulkhead behind the train was sealed. I would have to open it using the switch located inside the control room. Locating the entrance to "Gate Control" room in the far right corner of the workshop, I made my way towards it.

On the wall to the left of the entrance to the control room, I saw another message. This one read, "The end of RYAN Is the end of the SELF". Moving into the control room, I located the switch. However, my instincts caused me to be uncomfortable in the room. The light emitted from the overhead light fixture bathed the room with an unsettling red hue. The metal shutters were closed on both sides of the gate controls. Two television monitors were mounted against the wall to the left of the controls and five were mounted to the right. Frigid water dipped down into the room from the right ceiling fan.

I did not like this situation at all. If something were to happen, I would be trapped in this tiny box. However, I had no choice. I had to get to Tenenbaum in order to get to my beautiful Eleanor. Mentally sighing, I firmly grasped the switch handle with my left hand and pulled it down. Instantly, my instincts were proven correct as the room turned pitch black as the lights were cut off.

After sulking from humiliation alone in the dark for a moment, the television monitors audibly powered on. White light filled the room, briefly blinding me. When my vision returned, I was met by the sight of the woman who had dared to harm my daughter. Sofia addressed me, "I know you. That symbol on your hand marks you a dead man."

She actually expressed regret or possibly even guilt for a moment before she continued while the camera got closer and closer to her face, "Ten years, Subject Delta, since I watched you put a gun to your head and pull the trigger. But take heart...out of your pain, paradise was born. I don't know how you survived, but your suffering is over now. These men will ease your burden."

The shutters opened as multiple "Leadhead" Splicers attacked the windows with Thompson submachine gun fire. My thoughts began to race. I was trapped. Refusing to back down, I let out an ear-shattering guttural roar that succeeded in frightening the attacking Splicers for a few seconds. Sofia finished, "Please understand that like all I have done, this...is an act of love."

At the same time that Sofia was finishing her speech, Tenenbaum contacted me with fright in her voice, "It is Sofia Lamb! She has found you!" Seconds later, the Splicers' assault had compromised the windows. I moved to the back of the room to avoid their wild gunfire. However, to my shock, they tossed in two lit Molotov cocktails, one of which landed on me. I roared with fury as flames erupted along my body while .45 ACP rounds began to strike me. The room itself caught fire as well and was soon reduced to a burning coffin.

My health system continued to work its magic but I was unable to reach my assailants to retaliate. However, seconds later, I heard the wooden floor beneath me begin to groan and creak over the sound of the screaming mob outside the room. Realizing what was about to happen, I began to laugh loudly at my would-be murders.

My grunt-like laughs caused a few of them to pause and look at each other briefly before they returned to firing their Thompsons at me. With one final cracking sound, the floor beneath me gave way and, letting out a grunt, I plunged down through the hole. Seconds later, I landed in frigid water that went above my head. For once, I was grateful for the frigid water as it soothed my cooked flesh.

After collecting myself, I observed that I was in a flooded maintenance pumping station. Directly in front of me was a large discarded fan. Freezing, I moved forward to locate the nearest path out of the water. After I had passed multiple desks, several pipes, and four slime-covered, floating corpses, Tenenbaum contacted me, "Now you know of the enemy we share. Sofia Lamb. The camera in your helmet allows me to watch through your eyes and help you to fight her."

Pressing on, I squeezed underneath a narrow access tunnel. On the other side, I saw a flight of stairs that led out of the water. Pushing my body as fast as it would go, I made my way over to the stairs. To the left of the stairs, I saw an advertisement for the 1959 Rapture Masquerade Ball that was complete with the image of the iconic bunny mask.

Slogging up the stairs, I exited the water. Before me, mounted into the wall, was a large fan with a bent blade that was slowly grinding in its housing as it struggled to turn. Moving up the stairs, I noticed a large white butterfly on the far wall that appeared to be made out of handprints in the shape of smaller butterflies. After squeezing underneath the wedged security gate that allowed access into the storage room beyond, I entered the room.

A Vita-Chamber was on the far right side of the storage area and as I neared it, a loud buzzing sound alerted me to the presence of my Security Bot, though how it had managed to reunite with me was a complete mystery to me. Turning left at the Vita-Chamber, I saw the entrance to the "drafting" room. A security camera was mounted on the left wall inside the drafting room. As I approached, I heard the sound of two Splicers rambling inside the room.

To my annoyance, the direct route to the other end of the drafting room was blocked by a fallen filing cabinet. I would have to go around. I had just started to move around the draft room when the two Splicers, a male "Thuggish" and a male "Leadhead", cried out as they saw me. The one armed with a revolver screamed, "Gotta stash myself!" As he ran off to find cover, the one armed with a section of pipe rushed at me.

Mentally sighing, I electrocuted him a blast of Electro Bolt and then followed up with a skull-shattering strike from my drill. Throwing his lifeless body against the glass wall to the right out of impatience with my left hand, I moved forward to eliminate the last Splicer. Staying out of the camera's view by continuing to follow the path on the exterior of the draft room, I flanked around the Splicer, who was engaging my Security Bot.

The deranged man was so focused on my escort that he failed to notice me approaching him from behind. With a single thrust, I buried the sharp point of my drill into the base of his skull. He would have never felt it. Snipers called it the "t". The individual is dead before they hit the floor. My surgical strike neutralized the final threat. After ripping my drill out of his lifeless corpse, I turned and made my way out of the draft room.

Entering the "jet postal office", I was shocked to see a red wagon directly in front of me as if it had been waiting for me. Inside, on top of a few white pillows, I saw another red vial of a plasmid and a jar of lightening bugs. As I crossed the threshold, I was suddenly overcome by the same blissful, peaceful feeling from before as a bright light with pink edges overtook my vision.

My grown daughter's eyes appeared in the center of the light as her beautiful voice filled my mind. "Father...it's me, Eleanor. I know you're awake in there – I can feel it. Mother won't be able to...to toy with you like that, ever again. This plasmid is for you. If I'm right, you can use it NOW!"

The sight of her eyes changed into the sight of her entire body. I was struck by her appearance. She was skinny, extremely pale, and unusually tall for her thin frame. Her face was the most innocent and fragile looking that I had ever seen. However, the sharp look in her blue eyes dismissed the notion of helplessness. She was wearing a white dress just like she had when she was a little girl. Her brown hair was cut short and was the only colorful part of her besides her enchanting blue eyes.

Overjoyed, I started to reach out for her. However, dishearteningly, she began to move away from me. After a moment, she began to run away from me. Why did she run away? She did not sound angry or upset. I called out for her to stop because there might be Splicers nearby but she said, "Please, find me." Then, the feeling and vision vanished as I was returned to the jet postal office.


	4. Chapter 4: Complications

Ch. 4: Complications

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the wait. I was working on my F.E.A.R. stuff.

Anyway,

As I mentioned before, this is AU and not a straight rip from the game because that would be too boring. As such, certain things are different. This chapter introduces some of those differences.

I hope some of you are at least finding this to be moderately entertaining.

Coming up, Subject Delta faces his first Production Model Big Daddy and protects his first new Little Sister against Sofia's Splicers.

Read and review if you want

* * *

A wave of confusion rolled through me. Why did my daughter run from me? I knew that she would likely be bitter that I had been unable to protect her but I had hoped that she would find it in her heart to forgive me. Had I been wrong?

I cleared my mind of such concerns. Her feelings for me did not matter. I was her Big Daddy, not her friend. While I had always viewed myself as being her father, I knew deep down that I was nothing more than her guardian. She clearly still wanted me. If she did not, she would have commanded me to self-terminate.

Looking back down at the red wagon, I picked up the plasmid with my left gauntlet encased hand. I groaned in irritation. I really needed to find a more efficient way of doing this. Once again rendering myself useless, I detached my drill and then injected myself with the red liquid. This time, my body did not react so violently. Seconds later, the electric arcs around my left hand disappeared and were replaced by a kind of miasma.

It took me a moment to remember the plasmid. It was called "Telekinesis". I smiled slightly beneath my armored face. My Eleanor certainly was clever. With Telekinesis, I would be able to catch incoming Hypno plasmids as well as interact with my surroundings. After reattaching my drill, I continued forward through the Jet-Postal room.

At the far left corner, I came to a set of stairs. After I had proceeded up the grey metal stairs, I arrived at the top landing. There, I found a message written on the wall with blood. It read, "She knows the way". As I neared it, I heard a male Splicer say, "I'm telling you, he's up topside right now highballin' it with all the..." I could not make out what he said next as I walked out onto the balcony.

I saw another workshop. Below me, around a lit burn barrel, were three Splicers. One of the male Splicers finished, "...and if anyone gets lippy, ha, he's got the bomb!"

Who were they talking about? Someone had escaped Rapture? How? As I continued eavesdropping, the female Splicer said, "Nuts! He saved a kindergarten full of cutesie little brats and lived happy ever after. He was a pansy. End of story."

Brats? The Little Sisters? If someone had rescued them, it would definitely explain the new appearance of the Little Sisters that I had encountered and why they reminded me of Eleanor. This was starting to make sense. This was a new generation of Little Sisters. The few remaining that had survived whatever it was that had happened to this city after my demise must have grown out of their usefulness as gatherers.

Their brainwashing had likely driven them clinically insane. They would have been useful only as the Big Sisters. Without ADAM, Rapture was dead. Anyone wanting to revive the city would need the substance to return life to the population and to the city itself. That meant new gatherers. Unfortunately, there would be only one place to get new little girls for the Gatherer Program: the surface.

Sofia Lamb was a lot of things. However, she was brilliant. Surely, if she was the new ruler of Rapture, she would not endanger the city by exposing its existence to the surface. After all, from what I recalled, she was convinced that the surface was "suicidal". However, perhaps she had lost touch down here in this sinking city.

The other male Splicer said, "You think I give half a shit about what he's done? He's gone now and Doc. Lamb is the news."

Seeing the large metal canisters of pressurized gas around me, I used Telekinesis to levitate one into the air. Aiming for the burn barrel, I launched the canister towards the three Splicers. As the canister made contact with the barrel, it exploded. The ensuing explosion killed the Splicers outright and rocked the air of the cavernous-like workshop.

Seconds later, two more Splicers appeared. Both were armed with revolvers and opened fire upon me. I let out a loud grunt when the small caliber rounds impacted my enormous bulk. Giving off an alarm, my escorting Security Bot flew down to their level and opened fire on the one exiting the cafeteria. I let out a loud roar that shook the entire building. The fourth man was directly below me and was temporarily stunned by my roar. I jumped over the side of the balcony.

I landed directly on top of him. As I descended down onto him with my heavy frame, I heard his spine breaking as he collapsed onto the floor. As he hit the floor, my right armored foot crushed in his skull, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, my companion had killed the other Splicer with a hail of bullets. As I dislodged myself from the crushed remains of the Splicer, another male "Leadhead" Splicer appeared.

Focusing, I switched plasmids and then electrocuted the disfigured man with a blast of Electro Bolt. As he cursed in agony while his body was racked with spasms, I rushed forward and swung my drill's hardened steel point into his head. The familiar sound of a hollow crack filled the air as my strike shattered the man's skull. As his body began to slump forwards, I swung my drill sideways and struck the Splicer in the side of what remained of his head.

The corpse fell to the floor next to the hollow train car that was in the repair bay. Having cleared out the area, I looked around for supplies. After gathering around forty dollars, I decided to investigate the Railway Café.

The water flowing down the short staircase was an indication of the appalling sight that I was about to behold. As I entered the dilapidated restaurant, I heard music coming from the interior of the kitchen. The overhead ceiling fan hung down from its original mounts. The only things anchoring the still operation fan were the electrical cables. Meanwhile, the floor was underwater due to the massive amount of water that was pouring down from the ceiling fan and only a small section underneath the fan was still lined with wooden floorboards.

I began to have second thoughts about wasting my time scavenging the ransacked restaurant for supplies. However, I continued forward. All of the food storage units in the kitchen were empty and the deep fryers were ablaze. Moving to the rear storage room, I found another diary recording but paid little attention to it. However, to my delight, on the storage shelf to my right, I found a gene tonic bottle.

The worn label read, "Drill Specialist". Giving off a brief laugh, I used my Telekinesis plasmid to extract a sample with an empty EVE Hypo and then injected myself with the tonic. The tonic restricted me to the use of my drill but, in return, granted me enhanced endurance with my plasmids. All I would need now was Armored Shell and Drill Power and this "obsolete" Big Daddy would be back on top.

Upon returning to the kitchen, I heard the ramblings of an approaching Splicer. With my bloodied drill at the ready, and with Telekinesis equipped, I exited the kitchen. As I entered the restaurant, I saw two "Thuggish" Splicers near the entrance. Seeing the explosive barrel against the wall, I used my plasmid to levitate the barrel and then launched it at the two disfigured women.

The barrel collided with the nearest Splicer and the resulting explosion killed her outright. However, the other Splicer rushed at me even as flames ate away at her skin. However, her determination was wasted as she collapsed before she even reached me. Wanting to get away from the stench of burning flesh, I quickly exited the café.

Upon returning to the repair bay, I continued towards the open bulkhead at the rear of the train car. As I approached it, however, it suddenly slammed shut in my face. Turning to my left, I saw a female "Thuggish" Splicer approach the bulkhead's gears. In a surprising display of intelligence, the ADAM addict lodged her section of pipe into the gears, jamming them.

My radio activated. Tenenbaum's accented voice filled the inside of my head as she remarked with noticeable disgust, "Ach...Sofia Lamb is using the Splicers against you. Most Big Daddies are like her slaves, guarding the Little Ones...but someone has awakened you..."

Her comment confirmed to me that Sofia was indeed the new ruler of Rapture. I relished the image of Andrew Ryan rolling over in his grave. However, a feeling of dread soon washed over me. With Sofia in control of everything in Rapture, my quest to find Eleanor went from dangerous to all but suicidal. I was the Paragon of the Alpha Series but there was a literal army between my beloved Eleanor and me. My chances of survival were near zero but at that moment, in that oil covered workshop, I made a vow that I would return to my Eleanor's side one way or another.

It was no mystery to me that Eleanor had been the individual responsible for my revival. After all, who else would possibly want to bring back a worn out old man like me? I also doubted that anyone else even remembered me besides her. Knowing my beautiful daughter as I did, she still dreamed of seeing the surface. Perhaps, that was why I was back. She had brought me back to be a kind of golem in a plan of hers to escape Rapture and see the surface.

Personally, I would have preferred it if she had brought me back merely due to the fact that she missed me, but beggars could not be choosers. She had seen fit to give me a second chance. I could escape my legacy of being a failure. I would not fail my daughter this time. Even if it cost me my life once again, I would serve my beloved master unerringly.

I turned and began to investigate the vast workshop for a way to return functionality to the bulkhead. However, I had taken no more than three steps before I felt the feeling of bliss overwhelm me once more. While I did not see Eleanor, I heard her inside my mind as she said, "Father, I know how all of this must seem but I assure you that I did not bring you back to be my golem. Yes, I do need you to assist me in my escape but I brought you back so that you could come with me. I apologize for making you believe that I only intended for you to be the means of my escape. This is all just so sudden. Months of planning and now it is all finally happening. You have no idea how much your absence has pained me Father, but I do not blame you for what Mother did. You are my only friend. I know that you only think of me as your daughter, but I am hoping that by the time you reach me, you can find it in your heart to think of me as something more. Tenenbaum is an ally, and she will tell you where to find me. Please, hurry Father."

With that, the feeling left me. To say that I was bewildered was an understatement. I had been completely wrong. Eleanor had purposely brought me back to be by her side as she escaped Rapture. As grateful as I was that she had missed me enough to find a way to bring me back, I was uneasy about her declaration of wanting me to think of her as "something more" than my daughter.

I had long since forgotten my true age much like my real name, but surely, I was old enough to be her real father, perhaps even her grandfather. Even if I was not a good twenty or thirty years older than her, the thought of her seeing me as something softer than her Big Daddy confused me. I was a disgusting monster; an armored killing machine that was only human in origins. What could she possibly see in a monster like me?

I cleared my mind of such taboo thoughts. I had clearly misinterpreted her statement. She had meant that she wanted me to see her as my friend. Yeah, that was it. She wanted me to see her as my friend, nothing more. Foolish old man, thinking that anyone could love a monster like you, get your head out of the clouds.

Investigating the restroom area, I found that there was a hole in the wall that was large enough for me to use my Telekinesis on the pipe section that was jamming the gears. After removing the pipe, the gears were able to turn and the bulkhead opened. As I exited the restroom, my radio activated once again.

This time, to my surprise, Sofia Lamb's voice piped through my head, "I know of your bond with Eleanor, Delta. To save yourself, you will come for her. But Eleanor has a destiny...one you cannot share. There is no place for you in paradise."

My radio deactivated, leaving me alone with my thoughts. To save myself? What kind of bastard did Sofia take me for? What was this nonsense about paradise? Then again, I should have expected someone who was willing to kill a man in front of his daughter's eyes to get her own way to be completely out of her mind. It was no wonder that Eleanor had gone to such extremes to escape Rapture. I had to get her out of Rapture before Sofia destroyed her.

Exiting the side area of the workshop, I turned left and proceeded past the bulkhead. The area beyond was smaller than the workshop. Straight ahead, the path was filled with rubble and two columns of water rained down from the low ceiling. To the left was a Vita Chamber and to the right was a Circus of Values vending machine.

Deciding to investigate the left path first, I found a downstairs area. Upon going down the stairs, I found a broken window that had two high-pressure twin trails of water entering it. A second set of stairs brought me to the controls for the bulkhead. After locating ten dollars in the pockets of a dead man, I returned to the main room upstairs.

Arriving at the vending machine, I found the mummified remains of a man lying against the chipped exterior of the device. To my surprise, the machine was functional despite its appearance. I bought an Eve Hypo to refill my tank before proceeding onwards. At the far end of the right path, I came to another set of stairs. However, there was a surprise waiting for me this time.

A set of child's blocks landed near the top of the stairs and rolled down to me. As the blocks made their way down to me, their wooden exteriors gave off a sound that seemed to echo inside my mind. There was only one way that those blocks were here: a Little Sister! Giving off a grunt, I raced up the stairs, my heavy footfalls filling the air with thunder.

Just as I reached the landing, I slowed to a halt as the armored form of a Big Sister landed inches away. She screeched threateningly at me while her Hellish red eye bore into me. Then, before I could react, she raced away towards the central turntable. From there, she leapt onto a train car, glared at me for a moment, and then jumped up onto what looked like a metal beam. From there, she jumped onto a hanging sign. She glared at me again before disappearing up into the giant hole in the ceiling.

Something was not right. My suspicions were confirmed seconds later when Tenenbaum instructed me, "Quickly, head for the elevator!" That Big Sister had set me up for an ambush. Moving as fast as my armored bulk would allow, I rushed towards the elevator on the far side of the turntable. Meanwhile, the screams of incoming Splicers filled the air.

I had taken less than five steps before five Splicers appeared before me. Before I could react, one of them had thrown a homemade grenade at me. The homemade device was more bang than it was effective but I let out an enraged roar as it detonated against my torso. The explosion destroyed my Security Bot, which crashed into the offending Splicer and sent him flying a few feet back.

Recovering from the grenade, I stomped forward past the nearest makeshift barricade. Behind it, I found the first Splicer, a disfigured man armed with a revolver and having a heavily bandaged head. As small caliber rounds peppered my frame, I blasted the man with a shot of Electro Bolt and then cracked open his skull with my drill. As he collapsed onto the filthy floor, I turned to face the other denizens.

There were four of them opening fire on me with revolvers that were in horrible condition. I could have sworn that one of them actually had a strand of tape over a crack in the barrel of their sidearm. Seeing the Security Camera behind them, I knew that I had to neutralize the annoying device first. Noticing a hack dart on the top of a nearby worktable, I used Telekinesis to launch it into the camera. The red light of the camera changed to green light and seconds later, a pair of friendly Security Bots arrived unleashing a hail of bullets at the Splicer that had thrown the grenade.

While my assailants were distracted by the bots, I levitated an explosive barrel and sent it into the crowd of Splicers. As the air was filled with flame, I rushed forward towards the elevator. Having killed the man that they were after, the Security Bots returned to wherever it was that they went after killing their target.

Ahead of me, the makeshift barricades reduced the path to a narrow space the size of a doorway. I made my way forward but soon found myself against two "Thuggish" Splicers. In quick succession, I used the classic combo of Electro Bolt and melee strike to dispatch the deranged, pipe-wielding gentlemen. I could hear even more Splicers coming towards me so I quickly proceeded through the narrow path.

On the other side, the path returned to normal. Even better, I saw the elevator less than twenty yards ahead of me. I weathered several more .38 caliber rounds as I ran towards my only escape route. The incoming swarm of Splicers was merciless. Multiple pistol rounds had hit home by the time that I had reached the elevator. Not wasting time, I pressed the green button inside the elevator with my gloved left hand.

Wheeling around, I saw the metal gate of the elevator close just in time. A male "Thuggish" Splicer wielding a pipe wrench began to swing his weapon against the gate while the "Leadhead" Splicers opened fire with their revolvers. Irritated by their single-minded assault, I revved up my drill as I gave off a guttural roar that vibrated deep within my chest. My threat succeeded in frightening them long enough for the elevator to begin to ascend.

As I traveled upwards, the denizens shook off their fear and bullets began to ricochet off the metal exterior of the elevator. As I continued upwards, I saw the inner workings of the train station. Meanwhile, Tenenbaum informed me, "Now, here is what the children tell me. You are a very old Big Daddy...bonded for life to a single little one. When you are apart for too long, your body begins to shut down like a coma. As long as the girl is in Rapture, you are stuck here as well. The name of your Little One is Eleanor Lamb. Daughter of Sofia. She is kept at Fontaine Futuristics on the other side of the city. You must go there and save her, before it is too late."

On the other side of the city?! That was putting it mildly. Fontaine Futuristics could not have been further away from my current location if we had tried! Wondering if my luck would ever get better, I steeled myself for the journey that I was no doubt about to endure. With bathyspheres out of the question, the only way to reach the seized compound was through the old network of the Atlantic Express. Assuming that the lines were still operational, I could reach Eleanor in two hours, maximum.

However, I got the feeling that the Atlantic Express was only going to be the easy part of my journey. Sofia would send all of Rapture after me to prevent me from reaching my daughter. This madwoman was the shadow of the woman that had first entered Rapture as a clinical psychiatrist. Whatever the cause of her obsession to keep us apart, I would have to face her and this cult of hers that seemed to have taken over Rapture head on in order to succeed. Already, I could feel my heart getting weaker. I only had a few hours left, at best, to get to her.

My thoughts turned to my brethren. Surely, I was not the last Alpha Series Big Daddy. Along with the notable protectors Subject Alpha, Gamma, and Sigma, they were all fierce fighters.

Subject Alpha was a close friend of mine and was honestly a much more capable fighter than I was though everyone saw me as the superior protector. A loyal friend, Alpha was the second ever successfully bonded Big Daddy. He was tactically brilliant, even for an Alpha Series, and preferred to use his wits and fully upgraded Prototype Rivet Gun to win fights rather than brute strength. If anyone could have survived all this time, it was Alpha.

Subject Gamma was cocky, sometimes too much for his own good, but he was a fearless fighter, so much so that he favored a fully modified shotgun. However, Gamma had a weakness when it came to thinking his battles out beforehand and I had to intervene during a previous incident to keep both him and his bonded daughter alive.

Sigma was a relative new comer so I did not know much about him. However, I did know that he did not have a bonded sister so it was entirely possible for him to be alive and sane somewhere in the city.

Granted, most of the Little Sisters from our generation appeared to be Big Sisters, "rescued", or "harvested". However, surely, I was not the last one. There had to be survivors somewhere. I refused to believe otherwise. The simple fact that there were Big Sisters meant that some of them had survived whatever had happened to this place. Surviving Little Sisters meant surviving protectors. I had watched my brethren fall apart as the loss of their bonded partners drove them to madness. However, at the time of my death, Subject Alpha, Gamma, Sigma, and a few others were still alive and sane.

Perhaps, if I could locate them, I would be able to enlist their aid. There was another Alpha Series Big Daddy, though I could not remember his name, that had been in hibernation. He had not been bonded to a Little Sister like Sigma. Vaguely, I recalled his designation being Theta, but I could have been mistaken. He was among the last of the Alpha Series Big Daddies. In fact, he was not bonded to a sister because, by then, they had pulled the plug on our program.

I had the most faith in Alpha however. If anyone could have survived all this time, it was him. If he had survived, then his daughter had likely been turned into a Big Sister. I was not sure what happened to Alpha Series Big Daddies that had had their sisters turned into protectors. I doubted that their bonds had been severed so it was entirely possible that Subject Alpha was still out there somewhere.

I arrived at a floor. Through a sheet of glass, I saw a female "Thuggish" Splicer riffling through a corpse with her back turned to me less than five yards away. As the elevator locked into position, the Splicer cried out, "A-a fan?" Then, she beat a hasty retreat towards a set of Trap Rivets that were imbedded into the wall on the side of the stairs. As the denizen ran past the rivets, they fired their secondary rivets into her unarmored body.

The projectiles ripped into her flesh, causing blood to shoot out of her body as they hit her. The Splicer never reached the top of the stairs. Seconds later, the glass sheet raised to allow me to move out of the elevator. I exited the device and moved over to investigate the rivets. As far as I knew, the Trap Rivets could only be fired from one of the Prototype Rivet Guns used by the Alpha Series.

I felt a ray of hope when I saw that the rounds were relatively new. Another Alpha Series had passed through here recently, and had likely been after the wooden boxes of Trap Rivet ammunition that were marked "Sinclair Solutions Trap Rivets". If I hurried, I might be able to locate him. Trap Rivets never fired against my kind so I continued past them. After investigating the manager's office, I made my way to the door that was marked "Ryan Amusements". Next to it, I found a Supplies cache and took the first aid kit. I applied the red liquid soaked bandages and then passed through the doorway to enter the hallway.

In the red light bathed hallway, I found another Circus of Values vending machine that was in equal disrepair as the previous one. The discarded luggage of passengers littered the floor. In the center of the hallway were abandoned chairs that had been intended to comfort weary travelers as they waited for their train to arrive.

I moved to the center of the long, cavernous space and then I called out for my brother with a low frequency grunt that seemingly vibrated the entire building. I continued my call for nearly an entire minute. Then, I stopped and eagerly waited to see if there was a reply. To my dismay, I failed to detect a reply. Perhaps, he had already moved deeper into the city. A horrifying thought occurred to me. Since Sofia Lamb was out for my death, she might mistake my remaining brethren for me and catch them off guard. After all, the only way to tell us apart aside from our helmets being occasionally made out of different metals were the Greek letters stamped on our hands.

As much as I wanted to stay and tear the building apart in search of my brother, I had a bigger obligation to reach Eleanor. The path to my left was caved in so I had no choice but to proceed towards the train station. As I descended the water covered stairs, I saw an Atlantic Express transit map at the bottom with a Trap Rivet lodged into its bottom right corner and a second one lodged into the tiled floor nearby.

More Trap Rivets? I grew excited. My brother had passed through here. He must have used the train to travel further into the city. If I followed the same line, there was a very good chance that I would locate him during my quest to reach my daughter. As I descended the steps, I heard a male Splicer ramble about "Bettys".

As I reached the landing, I found him banging against the closed window of the furthest ticket booth. His behavior confused me. He was determined to get whatever he thought was inside the booth. Standing behind the rivets, I gave off a grunt to get the Splicer's attention. Crying out in shock, the man wheeled around and then rushed towards me. Upon reaching the Trap Rivets, the man was struck by the secondary rivets. The projectiles ripped into his soft flesh, tearing open his left thigh and right arm to expose the bone beneath.

The determined denizen continued his charge despite his wounds. As he lunged to strike me with his makeshift melee weapon, I sidestepped him to the right. After maneuvering to get behind him, I drove the sharp point of my drill into the back of his skull in the brain stem. The man was dead before he knew what was happening. Ripping my drill out of his corpse, I moved to investigate the ticket booth.

Noticing the call button, I pressed it with my left index finger. The shutter opened to reveal a worn Tenenbaum with three former Little Sisters. One of the girls was leaning against the glass before me and the other two were on the floor playing together. I could not help but smile beneath my copper face at the sight of the two playing together.

Tenenbaum approached me and stood before me on the opposite side of the window. As she raised her left hand to cup the chin of the little girl leaning against the glass, she said, "You see? This is why I must fight Sofia Lamb." She began to pace as she continued, "She is using the new Little Ones...for something...so I have returned to rescue them." She looked back towards me and said, "If I do not, more children will die for my sins...and the Rapture nightmare will repeat forever. Now we must talk of..."

At that moment, I noticed the image of Sofia Lamb on the television monitor behind Tenenbaum. Meanwhile, the little girl touched the aged scientist's left arm to get her attention. Tenenbaum calmly looked down at her with a motherly expression on her face. Silently, the child motioned towards the television monitor with her left hand. Turning around, Tenenbaum saw the image of Sofia Lamb.

Meanwhile, Sofia began to announce, "Attention! Citizens of Rapture!" The image on the monitor changed to show an image of my armored face. She continued, "This is Subject Delta. Behind that mask lies an enemy of the people...without soul or sympathy." The image changed to show one of my gauntlet-encased hands and identifying "Delta" symbol stamped into the top. She finished, "It is a beast apart...and as family, we must tear out its jaw and drive it back into the sea!"

The children began to panic, flooding me with guilt. Meanwhile, Tenenbaum addressed me, "Lamb will take this place apart to find you...please hold back the Splicers until we can escape." In response, I let out a guttural roar as the reflection of red light appeared on the glass surface of the ticket window barrier.

The maddening primal fury of my Protector Instincts erupted inside my mind. They may not have been Little Sisters, but I would be damned before I let the Splicers get anywhere near the innocent little girls. It was time to prove that this old guard dog still had some bite left in him. The gates to the train station opened and I charged through the open path.

In the far right corner was a train car. In the near right corner was a huge opening in the wall that would likely be used by the incoming Splicers. However, there were more Trap Rivets placed near the hole. Whichever of my brothers had left them had apparently had been protecting Tenenbaum and the children. In the seconds that I had, I wondered why he had gone through the trouble only to leave them in the ticket booth. Perhaps, like me, he had urgent business elsewhere and had simply been passing through.

To my left, I saw an aid station, which I quickly destroyed to prevent the Splicers from using it as well as gaining a first aid kit. In the near left corner, I saw a second hole in the wall, but this one had a large pool of water beneath it. The Splicers that came from that way were as good as dead. Upon noticing the Security Camera along the left wall, I rushed over to it and rewired it. Seconds later, the red light coming from the camera changed to green.

Returning to guarding the ways to the ticket booth, I steeled myself for the coming onslaught. They came from the right hole first. I grunted as pistol round impacted my armored hide. Two female "Thuggish" Splicers rushed at me but the Trap Rivets slowed them down enough for me to close the distance. In quick succession, I swung my drill into their disfigured faces and within seconds, they had crumpled to the ground.

Focusing my attention on the "Leadhead" Splicer, I swung my drill sideways and disarmed the woman as she lost her grip on the flimsy revolver, which flew off to the right somewhere. Before she could react, I followed up with an uppercut in the base of her jaw. The strike lifted her off the ground about a foot straight up into air. When she fell onto the ground, I sent the point of my drill into the brain stem of her prostrate form.

An explosion off to my left drew my attention. A wave of Splicers appeared in the left hole. Focusing, I sent a blast of Electro Bolt into the pool of water beneath the entrance. The oblivious denizens jumped into the electrified water and were immediately racked with blue electric arcs. Seconds later, they succumbed to the trap and collapsed into the pool of water. As more continued to charge out of the opening, I sent another blast of Electro Bolt into the pool. The single-mindedness of my assailants proved disastrous, for them, as my simple trick completely annihilated the incoming wave of Splicers. Moments later, it was all over.

I felt my anger dissipate as Tenenbaum contacted me through my radio. Her voice was full of gratitude as she said, "Thank you. Now...I must leave you, and I am sorry for this. But there are others that I must help before the city drowns. This man-Sinclair...he is an ally, and will guide you to Eleanor. Goodbye Herr Delta...and good luck."

Seconds later, a man with a noticeable Southern drawl in his voice addressed me, "Well look at you...a bona fide knight in armor-complete with iron horse. The name's Augustus Sinclair, sport. Esquire." Sinclair? The owner of Persephone and Sinclair Solutions? The man that had "rented me out" to Fontaine's butchers? As far as allies went, I had to admit that Sinclair was an interesting complication.

My old warden continued, "Ol' Tenenbaum and I share an interest in the old Fontaine buildin'-the very same place you'll find Eleanor Lamb." I mentally sighed in frustration. Apparently everyone in Rapture, except me, had known where to find my beautiful Eleanor. Sinclair continued, "I think you an' I can do business. Take the train to Ryan Amusements...I'll see you shortly."

With that, my radio deactivated. I gave off a low, long-winded grunt of frustration. I just wanted to get to Eleanor! Not babysit some opportunistic businessman that would likely stab me in the back the second that it became profitable. Tenenbaum and the girls were one thing but this man was something else. He had already sold me out once for a profit.

However, after thinking for a moment, I realized that I was now in a very advantageous position. He needed me. He certainly could not muscle his way through Lamb's followers. No, he would need me for that. As long as he had Sofia Lamb to worry about, he would need a monster like me to be his muscle. Meanwhile, as much as I hated to admit it, I was just a skull thumper. I certainly did not know any secrets to getting around this fallen city. Sinclair, however, seemed to know all kinds of secrets about Rapture.

This "partnership" would benefit the both of us. Once I was with Eleanor, Sinclair would be on his own, but, knowing him, he already had an escape plan. Once we got what we wanted, we would go our separate ways. In the meantime, however, I would need to watch my back around him. Sofia might try to buy him out and Sinclair only cared about himself. I would have to watch him and hope that he was not foolish enough to believe that Sofia would let him leave the city alive.

After searching the train station for supplies, I boarded the train car. Upon entering the streamlined underwater tram, I found that the right window of the cabin was missing. I grunted in annoyance as I realized that I was going to have to be submerged inside the cabin of the train while it traveled to its destination. Was it so much to ask to stay out of the frigid Atlantic water? I was a Big Daddy but that water was cold. After throwing a little tantrum, I calmed myself and pulled the lever to activate the train.

The watertight double doors beside me closed and sealed shut. Then, the bulkhead in front of the train opened and the tram began to inch forward into the icy water. As the water level reached the windowless hole, I grunted a distorted curse word. Seconds later, the cabin was submerged as I was once again surrounded by the frigid waters of the Atlantic.


	5. Chapter 5: Eleanor's will

Ch. 5: Eleanor's will

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the wait. I was distracted by other things.

Anyway,

I did not realize that it was going to be this long of a chapter. I have a problem, I'm sorry. I like writing too much.

Right...so, we see Delta face his first Mass Production Big Daddy.

I will have the bonding time in the next chapter. I decided that Eleanor should play a bigger part in the story instead of the minor parts until the very end of the canon story.

As I said, this is AU.

Oh, before I forget, thank you to all who have been supportive! I appreciate it! I am just happy that people remember poor Delta, Eleanor, and their story.

Read and review if you want.

* * *

Passing through the tombstone-like buildings of the decayed city in the submerged cabin of the train, I leaned against the side of the greenish interior of the vehicle with my right shoulder as I listened to the rhythmic thumping of the tram as it made its way along the uneven sections of track.

I reflected on the events that had transpired so far. I had died sometime around ten years prior. My bonded Little Sister, Eleanor, had been growing up in the care of her mother ever since that night. During that time, something had happened in Rapture. The majority of the city outside the train appeared to be in severe disrepair. As far as I could tell, the majority of the Little Sisters had been lost during the event and their protectors' corpses now rotted away in the flooding hallways of the war-torn metropolis. Andrew Ryan was dead. Sofia Lamb had taken control of the city.

The only reason that the city was still "alive" was because of the Rosie Big Daddies and their tireless maintenance work. Sofia had kidnapped new girls from the surface and created a new generation of Little Sisters for some unknown reason that somehow involved "paradise". The surviving generation of original Little Sisters had been turned into powerful, lithe, armored creatures called Big Sisters. The arms race in Rapture had brought a new model of Big Daddy into existence but it was an abysmal failure as far as I was concerned.

The fate of my brethren remained a mystery. I had come across evidence that at least one of my brothers was still alive. We had been abandoned by the city even before I was killed. "Impractical", they called us. The loss of their bonded daughters proved too much for those of my kind that had lived beyond the incident. In truth, an Alpha Series living beyond his bonded sister was rare in my time. We protected our daughters with our lives. In the rare cases that the protector was alive after the incident, however, the result was disturbing to witness.

I shivered as I thought of the fate I would face should I fail to get to Eleanor in time. Coma was a beautiful thought but I knew better. My instinctive drive to find Eleanor would drive me to madness for which death was the only solution. I only had a few hours left and I was still nowhere near Fontaine Futuristics.

Eleanor's beautiful face filled my mind as I peered out the windowless opening at the city going past me. Her marble-like skin, deep blue eyes, innocent face, and cute accent were enough to make anyone fall under her spell. She was rotting away in this place. I had to get her far away from here before it was too late.

I looked at my reflection in the surface of the left glass sheet. Subject Delta returned my glance. This monster was her only friend? Perhaps, I was already too late. My daze was interrupted by the familiar feeling of bliss. Eleanor's enchanting voice echoed through my resting form as she said, "Father, please do not think such things. You are not a monster."

I replied with an unenthusiastic grunt. Eleanor sighed before she said, "Father, we have been through this before. Just because they put you in this suit doesn't mean that it is who you are."

I let off a flat grunt before giving her a quizzical groan. She giggled before she said, "We are speaking through our link, Father. You can speak words."

Mentally face palming, I replied with a gruff voice, "Sorry kid, I forgot."

Eleanor huffed before she said, "I'm not a kid anymore, Topside."

I laughed dryly for a moment and then said, "Right...sorry. Eleanor...I..."

My daughter interrupted me as she assured me, "No, that was not your fault. Do not blame yourself for what happened Father. I certainly do not."

I asked, "Eleanor, why did you bring me back?"

Hurt filled her voice as she replied, "Father, you have no idea how much I have needed you all these years. Before Mother found a way to remove my conditioning, every moment was a nightmare. The happy world was gone and it would not come back. I was so scared...the only thing that allowed me to get through the day was to pretend that I was you. I thought that you would have wanted to be with me again..."

Alarmed, I assured her, "No, no, no. Sweetie please don't cry. Of course, I want to be with you again. Sorry kid, this is just all a bit much for me...please calm down...I didn't mean to upset you."

After a moment, she recomposed herself and said, "I'm sorry, Father. I'm just a little on edge right now."

I gave off an understanding grunt in response. As the tram passed by one of the many clear tunnels in Rapture, I observed a Rosie following behind a skipping Little Sister. Knowing what I was looking at due to our link, Eleanor said, "Father, you know that you need ADAM..."

I interrupted, "Yes, my little one. I know."

After a moment, she informed me, "Mother controls the ADAM, Father. To get it, you will have to deal with the new Little Sisters directly. By now, I think you have realized that they are made from me. Mother needed them but the process to create them was lost in the years following the Civil War. So, the new sisters are made from me, in part. I can feel them...they can feel me. However, I know how much you need their ADAM so I will let you decide how to deal with them."

I said, "I am not a cruel man, Eleanor. You know that. I will rescue them."

Curious, she asked, "How?"

I smirked slightly beneath my face before I assured her, "Leave that to me." Then, remembering my unknown brother from the train station, I asked, "Eleanor, at the train station, I encountered signs that another Alpha Series had traveled through there before me. Do you know anything about that?"

She was silent for a moment as if she was deciding how to word her response. I felt a wave of dread wash over me. I knew that my brethren would likely be in a bad way, but I refused to accept that all of them were otherwise incapacitated. After all, there were twenty-three of us. Surely, there would be survivors. Finally, she replied, "Father...I am so sorry...but...the only ones that I know of are...you and Sigma. Tenenbaum has Sigma doing something else for her but I can assure you that he is nowhere near you."

I grunted stubbornly. I knew what I had seen. There was another Alpha Series out there that was sane enough to be tactical. Eleanor thought for a moment before she informed me, "Well...there is...him...but it is very unlikely that he is still alive." I gave off an inquisitive grunt.

She explained, "You see, Tenenbaum returned to Rapture because little girls were being kidnapped near the sea. While she managed to rescue a few on her own, she realized that, alone, she could not stop Mother. Around that time, I made contact with her through the new Little Sisters. We have been planning on how to thwart Mother's plans ever since. We both agreed that we needed help against Mother and these fools that she has under her spell. Not only would the individual need to be strong enough to fight through the Splicers but they would also have to be a match for the Big Sisters and Big Daddies."

I asked, "You mean, strong enough to disrupt Sofia's ADAM supply line?"

She replied, "Yes, Father. Tenenbaum wishes to end the Rapture nightmare forever and I wish to escape and see the Sun. So, our goals are on the same path. We needed help from someone that would be strong enough to fight for us. There was only one person that I could think of: you."

Shocked, I remarked, "Me?! Appreciate the flattery, kid, but I am an old man for Christ's sake."

My beautiful Eleanor said, "Nonsense, Father. You are not as old as you think you are. Besides, you are Subject Delta, the strongest Big Daddy in the history of Rapture! We found your body and took gene samples. Tenenbaum removed your Protector Instincts and I worked out how to rig one of the Vita-Chambers to seek your signature. The Thinker in Minerva's Den helped too. Well, here you are."

I corrected her, "My instincts were only dormant. Not to worry, I reactivated them."

Eleanor was silent for a minute before she asked, "You...you...but...why? You could have been a free man, Father. Why?"

I replied, "I would do anything to protect you, Eleanor. If it means losing my freewill to keep you safe, then it is a small price to pay."

Through our bond, I could feel her blushing as she said, "F-Father..."

I assured her, "My beautiful daughter, I don't care what happens to me as long as you are safe and happy. Whatever you want me to do, I will do it no questions asked."

Eleanor replied, "I want you to reach me and take me to the surface just like how we always talked about doing, Father. I want to see it all...Paris, New York, London, and all those places."

I smiled beneath my armored face as I assured her, "You will, sweetie. I promise. Now, you were saying something about him?"

She continued, "Yes, Father. You see, until we could find a way to bring you back, we needed a friendly Big Daddy to protect Tenenbaum's Little Sisters so that they could bring her enough ADAM to mold your genetic structure as well as to keep it out of Mother's hands. There was still an Alpha Series that was in hibernation. Tenenbaum reactivated him and he spent about a month collecting enough ADAM for her to work with. At first, we only had him gather small amounts at a time so that Mother would not catch on to what was going on. However, she noticed the missing Little Sisters and began to watch the city like a hawk. We had no choice but to have him collect more ADAM each time. Mother thought that he was simply a rogue and merely sent her Splicers after him. Eventually, he had gathered enough and Tenenbaum was able to finish her work with your gene sample. Meanwhile, I had finished tinkering with one of the Vita-Chambers. Because of him, Father, you are now alive once more."

I asked, "So, where is he now?"

She replied, "I...he...I am not sure. See, Mother finally decided upon a more drastic measure. She sent a Big Sister after him. I have not heard any word from Tenenbaum since then. If it was him that had placed those rivets, then she has not told me that he is still alive. She probably did not think that it was relevant."

I asked, "Which Alpha Series is he?"

She replied, "I actually don't know. He didn't have a symbol like you do, Father."

Confusion hit me. Did not have a symbol? That was unusual to say the least. Every Alpha Series received a mark, even those that were not bonded to a daughter. Perhaps, the protector had received one, only for the mark to be erased by a combination of the conditions of his hibernation tank and time.

However, as much as I wanted to locate my wayward brother, I had more pressing concerns at the moment. I could see the silhouette of Ryan Amusements getting closer. I would undoubtedly encounter a Big Daddy and Little Sister within the theme park's walls. As much as I despised the disgusting hulking brutes, I was unable to offensively attack them due to my programming. So, for the moment, this old dog was chained.

I said to my bonded sister, "Eleanor, to get to the Little Sisters..."

My daughter interrupted me by saying, "Ah yes, the _tin men_, as you call them. I am sorry to throw you into harm's way like this Father, but we have to get the Little Sisters away from Mother...one way or another. Every drop of ADAM that gets to Mother only causes me more pain."

Alarmed, I let out a concerned grunt. She continued, "There isn't enough time to explain everything right now. However, know that the ADAM from those Little Sisters is causing me pain."

When she spoke again, her voice was different. Her tone was frighteningly cold and authoritative while all traces of warmth were gone. Yet, as she spoke, I felt nothing other than the desire to serve her unerringly. My freewill evaporated and I memorized her every word so as to follow her orders to the letter. My master commanded me with her icy tone, "Father, I am ordering you to disregard your combat constraints. From this point on, all that matters to you is my will. Do you understand Delta?"

I grunted in acknowledgement. However, she demanded, "Say it."

I replied through our link with a flat, deadpan tone, "I understand, Eleanor."

Satisfied, she informed me with her usual warm voice, "Oh, Father, you have no idea how...maddening ...it has been these past ten years. To have to...endure...being near these animals of Mother's flock. To have to listen to them ostracize you, my knight in shining armor: the strongest, bravest person that I have ever known and the man that I love, as a coward, a kidnapper of children, and a monster that defiled me. This is my will Father: make them remember, make them _all _remember...remember the man from the surface...the mighty Subject Delta: paragon of the Alpha Series. Make them remember you, Father. Make them remember the kind of man that you are."

I assured her, "I will, Eleanor." Her presence left my mind and seconds later, the watertight bulkhead for the train lowered to allow the train car to enter the building for Ryan Amusements. As I pushed myself upright to face forward, I noticed damage to the original power lines running from the rest of the city to the building. It looked like they had suffered severe damage during a possible firefight and then some time later, someone had attempted to repair them only to realize that they did not have the necessary parts so they simply ran new lines to jerry rig power to the building.

I cringed at the sight. Without the main power line pumping juice into the structure, the building would have sealed itself due to standard security measures designed to prevent the building from flooding. The builders had designed the measures under the pretext that the lockdown would last, at most, a few days or even a week. By then, the belief was that the Rosies would have repaired the structural damage and restored power to the building, thus, freeing those trapped inside.

However, the damage that I saw looked old and the repairs looked relatively new. I gave off a low-pitch groan as I imagined those trapped within the building slowly starving to death over a period of weeks waiting for help that would never come. No, I corrected myself, starvation would not be what finally claimed the survivors.

In a sick joke, the main threat in surviving a place like Rapture was actually hydration. Surrounded by water, and one of the most cherished substances in the city, second only to ADAM, was fresh water. What would have claimed the survivors long before starvation was dehydration. Even Splicers required the life giving substance. Only Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and now, I assumed, the Big Sisters did not physically require the substance to live any more than we needed food. The only thing we needed was ADAM.

Any protectors and gatherers present when the power was cut likely did not even notice beyond the protector having to drive back the panicked mobs. After their gathering session, they would have left the building, the Big Daddies through the airlocks and the Little Sisters through the vents.

As the train car surfaced at the station, I mentally cried out in relief as the relatively warmer air of the amusement park replaced the frigid waters that had been surrounding me moments prior. The layer of frost that had grown over my leather, canvas, and copper hide began to melt. As the train pulled into the station, I realized that the watertight bulkhead that allowed further access into the city was frozen over by enormous ice sheets. The train would be cut to ribbons! Acting quickly, I began to apply the brakes.

As I did, the voice of Sinclair piped through my built-in radio as he advised me, "Whoa there, now, better apply the brakes unless you're aimin' to dash yourself against that glacier up ahead." Seconds later, as the front of the train approached the ice, the brakes squealed and the train car came to a halt.

The double doors of the forward car opened. With blue electrical arcs dancing around my left hand and my drill at the ready over my right hand, I turned to my left and then started to disembark the train. As I did, Sinclair informed me, "As you can see chief, the station is iced over. To reach Eleanor at Fountain Headquarters, we'll need to clear the way. Now, in order to melt that ice, you'll need a plasmid like a handful o' hellfire."

By then, I had exited the train and was searching the station for supplies. Meanwhile, Sinclair continued, "We used to sell a fine old product called Incinerate! in the theme park up yonder. Go on an' find a way in—I've already been on all the rides."

Unsure about how to react to his strange sense of humor, I merely grunted in response. Examining the frozen bulkhead, I discovered that the cause of the ice was a ruptured water pipe. Since the pipes were unheated, a ruptured one would eject frigid water that frozen against any surface that it touched. I would not be able to brute force my way through it, even with my drill whirling at full throttle because the pipe would simply refreeze ice over it, possibly even entombing my drill beneath the new layers of ice.

With no alternative, I turned back to face towards the security door that led further into the building. However, as I passed the ticket boot to the right of the station, I noticed an EVE Hypo in the window. Deciding to make the quick detour, I entered the booth and used my Telekinesis to levitate the needle and then inject the substance into my IV port.

I shivered as the cold substance traveled through my body while the excess went into my EVE tank. Exiting the booth, I noticed the train schedule reporting display in the middle of the walkway just beyond the metal grated floor of the station. According to the schedule, the Atlantic Express was on its last legs. The only line that was still operational was the one that I was currently traveling along, and thanks to the ice now built up along the bulkhead, it was nonoperational.

I mentally sighed in disappointment. That meant that my chances of running into my brother here were nearly zero because if he had used the train, there would be a second train car in the station. Moving past the schedule display, I walked through the puddle of oil as I proceeded towards the metal security door.

The greenish, oxidized door had the name "Atlantic Express" on it. As I neared it, the watertight obstacle raised up to open as the sound of metal grinding filled the air of the station. Moving through the opening, I came to a large flight of stairs. At the top of the landing, I found what looked like the makeshift home of a Splicer next to a Vita-Chamber.

The Splicer's living area was constructed out of a large, flat shipping crate for the far wall, the remains of a wooden bench for the other wall, a canopy/roof constructed out of some kind of cloth, and a mattress for the flooring. On top of the mattress, I noticed an unopened can of beans and an open suitcase that had a sealed thermos of what was likely coffee sticking out of it. Candles lit dangerously close to the cloth canopy provided what little illumination and warmth that they could for the missing occupant.

Moving past the dwelling, I noticed a handwritten message painted on the wall with white house paint. It read, "We are but STONES to pave the WAY." I grunted in irritation. More altruist ramblings? There was a fine line between devotion and fanaticism.

The thought returned me to Eleanor. I loved her, but I was afraid that she did not really love me as she claimed. She may even think that she loved me. However, I was worried that she instead loved the "idea" of me. It was perfectly normal for a girl her age to want a male figure that they could see as the ideal for a mate. In other words, I represented what she wanted in a companion and in the years that I had been absent, she had built up an imaginary relationship between us inside her mind.

After all, our time together was short, not even a year. I never met Sofia before that night that she made me kill myself, but Eleanor convinced her mother to "sponsor" me in Dionysus Park to prevent Ryan and his men from being able to arrest me. The woman was brilliant. She sold me to the Rapture public as a hero and I gained enough of a celebrity status that they dismissed Ryan's outcries that I was a government agent.

As time went on, Eleanor grew attached to me. I guess I was everything that she wanted in a "Father Figure". I became a kind of surrogate father for her. Of course, this alienated Sofia's support of me as she had never wanted her daughter to have a father. Luckily, by then, Ryan had lost most of his interest in me as more pressing issues like Fontaine demanded more of his attention. Because of Ryan's discontinued interest in me, I was able to live in Rapture with Eleanor even without Sofia's sponsorship. However, certain events soon unfolded that led to our separation as well as putting us on the path to become what we were now.

By then, I had reached the main entrance to the park. On the wall before me, I saw another candle shrine with a piece of artwork that resembled a man with a butterfly for a head rising up like he was being raptured. Above the painting was the message, "WE WILL BE REBORN". Below the painting was the message, "She is OUR SALVATION". I wondered who it was that they were referring to, Sofia or Eleanor. I decided that it was likely Sofia that they were referring to.

Turning to my left, I saw another busted pipe that had amassed a large chunk of ice inside a pool of water. At the far end of the remaining path, I saw a Circus of Values vending machine. I did a quick mental calculation and decided that my tank reserves were near maximum capacity so I had no reason to stop. Instead, I turned to my right before I reached the machine to enter the room with the entrance to the park.

As I moved into the room, a Leadhead Splicer suddenly appeared standing on top of the remains of the clock tower in the center of the space. The man was wielding a Webley Mk IV Revolver and had a welding mask to cover his face. When he saw me, he cried out, "Clown, fucking clown!" The madman went to jump down from the pedestal-like piece of rubble that he was standing on. However, I electrocuted him with a blast of Electro Bolt and he fell backwards onto the hard, tiled floor.

Closing the gap, I rushed forward around the left side of the rubble. As I rounded the corner of the debris, I found him getting to his feet. Just before I was within striking range, he fired his revolver. I growled as the agony shoot through my body. Before he could fire another round, I swung my drill's razor sharp point into his face. The thin welding mask offered little protection and my drill's point easily penetrated the thin obstacle to crack open the man's skull.

To my amazement, the man side stepped me before I could deliver the final blow. The mask fell to the ground to reveal the horribly disfigured face of the Splicer. My blow had ripped open the front of his face to reveal the brain beneath. However, the man raised his revolver to fire again. Distracted by the obvious threat of my drill, the man failed to see my enormous gauntlet-encased left hand before I grabbed him around his neck.

Before he could fight back, I crushed his neck into powder with my hand by tightening my grip. Tossing the limp figure aside, I began to make my way towards the nearby gated entrance to the park. However, when I neared the brass plated entrance, an automated voice of a man announced, "Welcome to Ryan Amusements, insert your ticket now. Half-priced for children under three."

I mentally cursed. I would have to find a ticket in order to gain access to the park and the Incinerate! plasmid. Turning back, I noticed the advertisements for the El Dorado Lounge, the Park itself, and the Atlantic Express along the wall to my right. Beyond them, on the right, I saw the ticket purchase counters. If there was still a ticket to be found in this place, that would be the only place that they would be. It would be a miracle for a piece of paper to be intact after all this time.

Entering the area behind the ticket counters, I found that it was actually the Security Wing of the building, as indicated by the large yellow neon sign on the wall above the cabinets just after the left turn into the area behind the counters that read, "SECUIRTY MONITORING ROOM".

My radio activated as I entered the room. Sinclair informed me, "You're a rare old model son, -'Alpha Series', I believe. Now Rapture is full of scientific wonderments just like you and if we can sell 'em to the world at my price, curin' your condition ought to be a cakewalk. Once we find Eleanor...the sky is the limit."

So, that was his game? Collect samples of Rapture's unique products and then sell them to the world? No, that was too simple for old Sinclair. I was certain that he was working some other angle. People could call him whatever they wanted, but the man was as brilliant as they came. He did not have to be ruthless in his business like Ryan and Fontaine. He was so clever and good with people that he was able to escape public spotlight while making money just as hard and fast as he could. He was Andrew Ryan without the need for attention.

If he was planning to do something with Eleanor, I would break his neck! He might have been able to silver tongue his way with other people, but I was not a fool. My condition was irreversible. Once ADAM touched someone, there was no going back. Subject Delta may have appeared human on the outside, but the man beneath my façade was a monster; a freak of nature twisted by ADAM until it was unrecognizable. The surface would never accept me.

Of course, if Sinclair sold the genetic products of Rapture to the world, then the world would be consumed by the desire for ADAM just as Rapture had. No! No! I could not let that happen! The inhabitants of the surface world were Hell bent on destroying each other. If they got their hands on plasmids, it would be an Apocalypse on a biblical scale.

For now, however, I would have to play along with Sinclair. Continuing through the room, I scavenged through the desks and filing cabinets for supplies. Thanks to the cash register behind the ticket counter, I found enough money to give me a new total of two-hundred and thirty dollars. I proceeded to the corridor beyond the room. There, against the far left wall, was a secured arsenal of weapons.

Among them, I saw an unmodified machine gun that was used by my brethren. Curiosity hit me as to why it was here. No normal individual, Splicer or otherwise, could lift the heavy metal weapon. It was a Gatling design with four rotating barrels that were usually reinforced and had a compensator on the end to reduce recoil when my brethren possessed them. Chambered for .50 BMG rounds, the belt-fed machine guns were potent weapons that were useful at all ranges against any enemy. Even Big Daddies were vulnerable to the .50 BMG rounds, though the machine guns' slow fire rate kept them from being perfect weapons as the cramped confines of Rapture allowed experienced combatants to find ways out of the line of fire.

Turning away from the Security Inventory, I looked down the corridor. I grunted in excitement when I saw the Power to the People machine against the far wall. Rushing towards it, I began to decide upon how I would modify my drill. By the time that I had reached the green-lighted device that indicated with a sign that it was "Open for business", I had decided that I needed to increase the damage output of my drill. I was not an engineer, but, as I had been working with my hands since I was old enough to work, I knew that the drill needed augers to increase its power.

Moments later, my newly upgraded drill with large augers running uniformly around its round exterior just above the bit glistened menacingly in the soft blue light coming in through the glass window against the far wall. I laughed in repeated grunts as I briefly revved up my drill. Its thunderous roar filled the silent air of the area with noticeably increased fervor and torque. Unfortunately, the Power to the People machines were only useful for one upgrade. No matter, my upgraded heavy-duty industrial tool was now more than a match for the Elite Bouncers' precious drills with their fancy harpoon-like blades.

Moving downstairs past yet another Vita-Chamber, I came to a workshop. At the other end of the small workshop, I saw a locked security door. Beyond the door, through the cracked glass, I saw the door's electrical panel against the wall. The cracked glass had a hole that was just big enough for me to send a blast of Electro Bolt into the panel. Just like it had against the door in the train depot, my blast overrode the locking mechanism and the door opened.

Moving through the threshold of the unlocked security bulkhead, I froze as I heard the strange, almost robotic sounding voice of a Little Sister as she declared happily, "I'm a good girl Mr. B." My Protector Instincts surged in my mind as they waited for the queue to activate. Moving forward in a kind of trance, I came to a large window. Beyond it, I saw the little girl gathering from the corpse of a male Splicer. There was another man sitting perfectly still behind a desk up against the wall. I quickly realized that it was one of the park's automatons and returned my gaze to the red dressed child.

As I reached the window, I heard a Bouncer Big Daddy growl at her. I scowled beneath my armored face. What's wrong tin man? Got somewhere to be? The girl finishes when she damn well pleases, not when it conveniences you! Bullies! All of them! The Mass Produced Big Daddies were unfit protectors. They only cared about their charges when they were in danger. Otherwise, they pushed the poor little girls around like cowboys on a cattle drive.

I emitted a low-frequency call that her protector would not hear. The deathly pale brunette girl looked in my direction with her glowing yellow eyes. She must have seen me because, for a moment, she gave me a pleading expression before she hesitantly stood and left the corpse as she returned to the Bouncer as he swung his permanently attached drill and continued to call out to her in an irritated manner.

My Protector Instincts throbbed inside my head like a severe headache even after the pair's shadows disappeared from view. Why did the city favor those palookas? WHY? My kind loved our sisters! Those tin men treated them like garbage! I was going to put them back in their place!

Turning to my left, I saw a ticket on top of a copy of Sofia's book on a desk against the far wall. After retrieving the miraculously intact item, I began to exit the workshop. As I did, Sinclair said approvingly, "Jim Dandy. That'll get you in the park. But buyin' Incinerate's gonna cost ADAM. It's sort of a genetic goo that lets you rewrite whatever God gave ya. The Little Sisters carry the stuff, as you may recall-so you'll have to locate one. I heard whisperin' near the El Dorado Lounge. Have a look."

I groaned in irritation. How clueless did these people think I was? Just because I was old, that did not mean ol' Subject Delta was slipping. Besides, some of the Mass Produced Big Daddies were older than I was. Especially some of the Rosies, since their main goal was to maintain Rapture and so they were rarely assigned as protectors. No matter, I would continue to play innocent for them.

By then, I had returned upstairs. As I exited the room with the Power to the People machine, I saw that the Security Inventory had been broken into. The machine gun was gone and a Prototype Rivet Gun was leaning against the broken security glass. I saw that the weapon's exterior was severely damaged and a broken tip of a Big Sister's needle-like weapon was sticking out of the side of it. While it was likely operational, the prospect of getting an undamaged machine gun had probably enticed my brother to forcibly gain access to it. I felt a new wave of excitement. My unidentified brother had been here. However, he had likely already moved on.

One of Ryan's old security guards was examining the inventory by hitting the already compromised glass with his baton. The man muttered to himself about God and other things. He was so distracted that I was able to get within striking distance without him knowing that I was there. Just as I was about to pounce on him, the Thuggish Splicer wheeled around. Swing my drill, I struck the man across his wrinkled face. My blow staggered the man and before he could recover, I struck him again, this time completely cracking open his skull.

The Splicer collapsed in a heap onto the floor. Returning my gaze to the abandoned rivet gun, I studied it for a clue to its owner's identity. My brethren all customized their weapons a different way. As such, we could tell each others tools apart. Unfortunately, the prototype was so damaged that I could not observe any telltale marks that would have allowed me to identify the wielder. Groaning in frustration, I continued forward.

As I approached the exit of the Security Wing, I heard a man yell, "Listen up choppers! Get yourself hid. No fuck-ups this time!" I idly wondered if the Splicers were aware of the fact that ambushes tended to work the best when the participants did not announce their presence at maximum volume as I exited the wing.

Upon moving into the main entrance room, I saw three people scurrying to find cover as the same man yelled, "Daddy's home! Take aim! Fire!" The Leadhead Splicers began to fire their revolvers at me. I growled as the .38 caliber rounds impacted my form. Ignoring the pain, I rushed forward towards the nearest Splicer. It was a disfigured woman wearing tattered aristocratic attire. She was out in the open underneath the overhang of the main entrance.

As I neared her, I electrocuted her with a shot of Electro Bolt. As she cried out in agony while blue electrical arcs danced around her body, I swung the razor sharp tip of my drill into the side of her skull. As she began to crumble to the ground, I used Telekinesis to levitate her body out in front of my. Using the corpse as a shield, I moved towards the remaining Splicers in relative safety.

A Thuggish Splicer wielding a baton got between me and the levitating body. After I quickly dispatching the addict, I reoriented my shield to absorb the incoming rounds from three Leadhead Splicers. I rushed forward towards them. Seconds later, I had closed the distance. I took aim at the men and launching the bullet riddled remains of the woman. The corpse hit the men and they fell to the ground like bowling pins. While they struggled to stand, I quickly terminated them by stomping down on their skulls with my heavy, armored right foot.

I would need to find a first aid kit, as the fight had slightly drained my reserve tank. However, thanks to my use of the corpse as a shield, it was not an urgent issue. Returning to the entrance, I inserted the ticket into the slot on the machine just beside the ornate security bulkhead. The door rose up to allow me entrance.

As I proceeded into the park, I noticed a model of Rapture's silhouette on the far end of the pathway. As I approached it, suddenly, light illuminated a pedestal with the mannequin of a woman motioning towards it as confetti shoot up into the air. Music started playing as a gene tonic vial rose up out of the pedestal. Then, the recorded voice of the big man himself played over the loudspeaker system, "Greetings, my name is Andrew Ryan. Welcome to Ryan Amusements. Please enjoy the park."

The loudspeaker system continued playing the song of the park, though, occasionally, the unmaintained speakers garbled the sound. After I injected the tonic into my IV port on my left arm, I felt the muscles in my leg tighten while my joints loosened up. Sport's Boost, I realized. I laughed slightly as I thought, 'This Alpha Series just got even more agile.' Looking back down at the pedestal, I noticed a sign that said, "FREE SAMPLE! Get more at The Hall of the Future." So, the Gather's Garden machine was in the Hall of the Future? I would have to go there once I managed to find some ADAM.

Turning left, I walked towards the main part of the park. Having gathered with Eleanor here, I knew its layout. Turning right at the Vita-Chamber, I faced the main crossroads of the park. To the left on the floor that I was on must have been the Hall of the Future. To the right across the bridge was the gift shop. At the back was the corridor to the El Dorado Lounge. Downstairs at the very back was the entrance to the propaganda machine called "Journey to the Surface".

I remembered poor Eleanor being so frightened by the exaggerated sights and sounds along the propaganda machine that she could not continue her gathering, since she was in her artificial wonderland until that moment, until she saw me rev my drill and kept its thunderous motor running. It cost me an entire tank of fuel, which was not cheap to refill, but it was worth it to keep her healthy.

Moving towards the lounge, I ignored the displays that informed people of the history of Rapture. I had already heard them, several times, thanks to my curious daughter. My throbbing Protector Instincts demanded my attention so I became disinterested in the specifics of my surrounds as I made my way towards the lounge.

As I approached the entrance to the corridor that went to the restaurant, I saw a golf ball roll from the other end of the corridor. A woman called out, "Boy, help me find this scoundrel." Moments later, a female Thuggish Splicer wielding a golf club appeared as she went to retrieve the ball. After dispatching the woman, I continued towards the lounge.

I proceeded through the threshold of the security gate. There, in the path towards the lounge, I saw another red wagon with a jar of fireflies down by its back left wheel. In the wagon, I saw a vial of a gene tonic and another object. On the floor in front of the wagon, I saw the message, "Hope this helps" written in chalk. I began to approach it, but, once again, the feeling of bliss overwhelmed me. However, this time, I could still move and I made my way over to the wagon.

As my the edges of my vision became pink, Eleanor's enchanting voice filled me as she said through our bond, "Until you arrive Father, I'm trapped here—smuggling these gifts out is the most I can do to help..." Before I could respond, the feeling vanished as well as the pink edges around my vision.

Now that I was before the wagon, I was able to see that there was a drawing of myself on the floor and I was accepting a present from a Little Sister. I smiled slightly beneath my emotionless copper face as I looked at the chalk drawing. I briefly wondered if it was normal for a parent to be more affected by the little personal things that their children did for them than the big things.

I injected the tonic into my IV port and grunted slightly from discomfort as I felt the fibers of my arm muscles rip and then heal what felt like hundreds of times. Finally, the sensation ceased and I noticed that my drill felt incredibly lightweight though I could still feel it give me resistance when I moved my right arm. Though it might have been my imagination, I also noticed that the canvas skin of my arms was now bulging as if the muscle beneath had become more defined.

I was puzzled for a moment. I already had all the available tonics from the series called "Wrench Jockey". Perhaps, Eleanor had gained access to some powerful prototype tonics meant for Big Daddies. Contrary to popular belief, the real source of the Mass Produced Big Daddies' strength was not from their own bodies but from the life support systems on the exterior of their suits. However, like the rest of my kind, my strength came from my own body.

I had heard of a prototype line of tonics that were intended for the Bouncers before the scientists at Point Prometheus decided to go with the life support systems. What was it called? Drill Power, that was it was called. I had always thought that it was just an "office rumor" that such a tonic line existed. However, I realized, not only did the series exist, but also Eleanor had gained access to it. I smirked, as I was now just as strong as the standard Bouncer. I would need the advanced version to match the Elite Bouncer, but, for now, I was ecstatic that I was just as strong as the smug Bouncers were.

I was about to proceed into the lounge when I noticed that the second object was actually an Accu-Vox recorder. If Eleanor had gone through the effort of smuggling this to me, then it was definitely worth the time to listen to it. I bent down and pressed the play button. Seconds later, the voice of Sofia Lamb began, "In ethical psychiatry, we must..."

However, the recording became garbled for a moment. Then, I heard Eleanor's voice from when she was a child as she giggled before she said, "Eleanor Lamb speaking. Mum says I am not to play with the other children, because..." Her voice deepened as she mimicked her mother, "...they're being raised on a diet of dog eat dog." Her voice changed back to normal when she continued, "I wanted to see these dog-eaters...so I waited until Mum was gone...and went out to find one...and guess what? The dog eaters wear human skin...makes them look just like us!"

The recording ended. I mentally sighed. That had been the Eleanor that I had first met: the naïve, sheltered little girl that had been locked away from the rest of Rapture by her mother. She was brilliant just like her mother, but, even with her rebellious nature, she was stunted when it came to people skills.

I suppose that is what she had desired to learn from me before she had grown attached to me: my people skills. I was charming when I had to be because of my military experience, but, otherwise, I was crude in my dealings with people like every other working class stiff. It was not that I purposely used crude language around her, just sometimes, as when I was helping to maintain the infrastructure of Dionysus Park as my way of making it up to Sofia for putting herself on the line with Ryan, some things just escaped my censor.

Unfortunately, since in Eleanor's mind I "could do no wrong", she picked up a few less desirable phrases from me that no little girl should have known. I tried to correct her when I realized that she, like most children, was a walking recording device, but, by then, the damage had been done.

To my surprise, her new tomboyish demeanor was more sociably acceptable in Rapture than the uptight, aristocratic demeanor that her mother had instilled into her since the majority of the populous was working class. The workers of Rapture even found it charming that such a little girl acted tough just like I, the weathered navy diver, did. Of course, Sofia did her best to "reprogram" Eleanor but the little girl's heart was set on being just like me.

Moving forward, I made my way towards the lounge. As I entered the lounge, I caught Eleanor's scent in the air. My mind became razor sharp as I hacked the convenient Security Bot on the floor near the entrance. Meanwhile, the Bouncer was giving off its long-winded whale calls that echoed through the air of the lounge.

I made my way around the bar and, turning the corner, there, on the stage at the far end of the lounge underneath the yellow neon sign of "El Dorado Lounge", was the Big Daddy and the Little Sister. I was unable to smell anything other than the scent of the Little Sister but I knew that anyone else would be gagging from the awful stench of the Big Daddy pheromones.

The brute bent down to allow the Little Sister to climb down from his back onto the ground. Meanwhile, Sinclair was saying, "Now, that Big Daddy won't bite until you do, but to get to Lil' Sis, you'll have to put the old boy down for good..." I only vaguely heard my ally as I watched the little girl courtesy as she looked at the tin man. Then, she waved at him as she said, "Thank you, Mr. B."

As the little girl began to move around the lounge, I quickly studied my surroundings. In the center of the space, there was a large statue with pools of water on either side. To the right, was the bar area. To the left, there were booths, including a little side area immediately to the left of the statue. I smirked beneath my face. I could not have picked a more advantageous place to fight the big, dumb brute if I had personally chosen it.

Even still, I would have to be at the top of my game to take on the other Big Daddy. After making a trip to the Circus of Values vending machine behind the bar area to buy a first aid kit and an EVE Hypo, I returned to the pair. As I exited the side area behind the bar, the red dressed Little Sister suddenly veered towards me and began to skip along the edge of the pool of water.

I cringed. If I attacked the Bouncer from where I was, I would put the little girl in the line of fire. I had been hoping to put myself on the other side of one of the pools of water to counter the brute when he attempted to charge at me as an opening move. As close as she was, I doubted that I could get around the pair without alerting the child, who would then alert the tin man.

Luckily, the little girl seemed to be trying to help me despite her conditioning by noticeably slowing her pace just long enough for me to dart along the side of the bar and back towards the statue. As I waited for the perfect moment to pounce, the little girl again seemed to want to help me because she led her following protector towards the barrel near the bar that was leaking oil around its base. I waited for the girl to get as far away from the barrel as possible and then began my assault.

As my opening move, I sent a blast of Electro Bolt into the barrel. As the high-energy electrical arcs made contact with the metal skin of the barrel, the object exploded. The blast peppered the giant with shrapnel and further damaged him with the shockwave. Simultaneously, the explosion ignited the oil beneath the tin man's feet and the giant was soon ablaze. Giving off an enraged roar, the Bouncer began to turn towards me.

Meanwhile, my Security Bot chirped in alarm and began to pepper the armored giant with machine gun fire. The rounds, however, did little more than further enrage the tin man as they bounced off his modified Carmagnolle Atmospheric Diving Suit. With a single swing of his drill, the Big Daddy destroyed the bot, sending pieces of metal flying in all directions. With his numerous portholes giving off Hellish red light, the brute focused his attention on me.

Suddenly, the Little Sister cried out, "GET 'EM MISTER B!" Artificial, burning fury filled me as my Protector Instincts stormed full force into my mind. The frightened little girl had unknowingly activated the aggressive response of my Big Daddy programming. Hellish red light began to emit from my porthole.

Then, revving my drill, I let out an ear-shattering guttural roar that thundered through the entire park and even shattered the beer and wine bottles in the bar area. If there was a Big Sister in the area, I was certain that all of her attention was now on this fight. Good, I was giving to give her something to tell the rest of the protectors, the 'Rapture Family', and Sofia Lamb herself.

The brute charged towards me, but I electrocuted the water in front of him with a blast of Electro Bolt. The Bouncer growled as he made contact with the water. I charged towards him. However, before I could get around him to attack his only weak point, the tanks on his back, the protector recovered. Wheeling around, the brute smashed the side of his drill into my armored head, causing me to lose my balance and stagger.

Enraged, I roared loudly as pain shoot through my body. The giant attempted to bore into me, but I used my agility to side step his slow attack. As the brute attempted to recover, I got around to his back and sent my revving drill into the fuel tank for his drill. In the seconds I had, I managed to rip open the tank, causing a huge stream of fuel to impact my torso.

My attack backfired as the sparks coming off my whirling drill bit ignited the fuel. We both roared in agony as we were engulfed in flame. However, unlike the dumb brute, I had sense enough to extinguish the inferno around my body before any permanent damage was done to both my suit and my person by using the nearby waterfall coming down through the roof above the stage. However, the Bouncer merely allowed the inferno feed off the enormous fuel reserve on his back as the agonizing fire ate away at his person and the life support systems on his back.

With the flesh beneath the canvas skin of my suit tingling from the burns, I focused back on the damaged Big Daddy. By then, the blaze had consumed the available fuel and the crispy protector roared at me as he lifted his drill into the air. Realizing what he was about to do, I attempted to electrocute him. However, I was too late. Using his namesake attack, the Bouncer slammed his drill into the ground.

I was temporarily stunned and unable to dodge his attacks properly. Taking advantage of my temporary disadvantage, the mass produced model bull charged me. Unable to move, I could only brace myself by loosening up my form to lessen the damage that I would receive. The same principle explained why, in car crashes, the individual who was DUI was usually the one that walked away unscathed.

Throwing his entire body mass into me, the Bouncer slammed me up against the wall behind me. I grunted in misery as I heard and felt several of my ribs snap while I also heard the throne for my master when she was on my back crumple. Seconds later, relief filled me as the red liquid of the tank on my back filled my body and repaired the damage to my ribs. The brute retreated away slightly and then swung his drill towards me.

Roaring, I ducked down to dodge the attack. The brute's drill became embedded in the wall behind me. Quickly moving around the Bouncer, I pounced onto the brute's vulnerable life support system on his back. Swinging my drill twice, I shattered the tin man's kneecaps. As the sound of cracking bone filled the air, the wounded giant collapsed onto the stage as he roared in pure agony.

Lost in my rage, I forgot that I was in the presence of a child. Eleanor's pheromone signature was overwhelming my senses to the point that I felt the urge to dry heave. I heard the Little Sister cry out, "End my pain, Daddy! Please!" Eleanor? Wait, no that was a new Little Sister, not my daughter. Right? The Little Sister cried out desperately, "Unzip him, Father! Unzip him!" Eleanor! That was Eleanor! The Bouncer had my Eleanor?! Though it seemed impossible, even more burning rage filled me. I roared in unimaginable fury. NO ONE touched my Eleanor! NO ONE!

I placed my right boot on the back of the Big Daddy's armored torso. Then, reaching up with my gauntlet encased left hand, I grabbed ahold of the brute's life support system, which was the second tank on his back. Unlike my kind, who could still "breathe", if our metal lungs were compromised, with the ones that we were born with, the Mass Production Big Daddies were grafted into their suits. Therefore, if their external lung was compromised, the brutes would die nearly instantly due to both the shock and the obvious reason.

However, for it to work, the tank had to be more than just punctured. Grunting as I exerted my new muscles, I pulled up on the tank. The Bouncer pinned beneath me flailed his arms like a defenseless tortoise. Had the tin man been able to swing his drill, he would have flipped himself over. However, the drill was still lodged in the wall and the awkward angle of his position prevented his other arm from being able to roll his enormous bulk over to dislodge me.

Finally, with a nauseating, sick, wet popping sound, the Bouncer's tank began to succumb to my assault. Blood began to shoot out of the sides of the tubes that connected the tank to the giant's back. My hearing was replaced by ringing as the Big Daddy's agonized cries overwhelmed my ears. With one final exertion, I forcibly detached the tank from the Bouncer.

I stumbled backwards with the tank still in my left hand for a few steps. Then, regaining my footing, I stopped. Throwing down the tank, I looked back at the essentially eviscerated Bouncer Big Daddy. The portholes were black and the giant was completely still. Still overwhelmed by rage, I stomped over to the lifeless protector. I placed my right boot on top of the armored hide of the giant. Then, after inhaling deeply, I let out the loudest roar that I had ever given off as I smashed the side of my drill against my armored chest repeatedly.

My roar vibrated the very walls of the building as it rocked the air of the park. I would not have been surprised if all of Rapture heard me. It was a message to all those who dared to get in my way. Subject Delta was not a frail old man! I was the paragon of all the Big Daddies! I was the boogeyman that haunted the nightmares of anyone who dared to consider hurting my beautiful Eleanor.

The Alpha Series were NOT dead! I was back! Me! Subject Delta! I was going to make them pay! I was going to make them all pay for leaving me and my kind to rot! When I finally ran out of breath, I collapsed onto my hand, drill, and knees. My calm, rational mind returned as I gasped for air while I continued to stare at the hardwood floor with the three sections of my oval eye.

Suddenly, a shadow approached me. Lifting my bulk up to identify my new assailant, I came face-to-face with the Little Sister that had just witnessed me heartlessly and brutally kill her "knight in shining armor". Shame and guilt began to overwhelm me but, suddenly, the Little Sister reached forward with her left hand.

She placed her tiny pale palm gently against the side of my armored head. Meanwhile, I noticed green light against her tiny body. My visor must have begun to emit green light instead of the typical golden yellow or Hellish red. Confusion filled me as I attempted to understand what was happening. I got my explanation seconds later when the little girl addressed me, "No, Father. _You _are my knight in shining armor. I knew you could do it!"

Shocked, I let out an inquisitive grunt. The pale girl smiled, the traces of ADAM in the corners of her mouth being the main indication that she was because her tiny lips were nearly translucent, as she nodded. As I scrutinized her glowing yellow eyes, I saw it: that sharp edge of intelligence and strong will. It was Eleanor. She must have been somehow controlling the Little Sister. She motioned for me to stand. Smiling, I pushed myself to my feet.


	6. Chapter 6: The Stakes

Ch. 6: The Stakes

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry the update took so long.

See, what happened was that I read the first few chapters and I realized that I was basically doing a "walkthrough".

As I do not intend for this story to be one, I decided to alter the plans that I had for it.

In my original plan, I was going to have Delta tracking the other Alpha Series Big Daddy's progress for the majority of the story and then, around Fontaine Futuristics, the two would finally cross paths.

However, I have decided against that and have made adjustments to my future chapter ideas. I think I have made a good balance though.

Besides, I refuse to believe that Delta and Sigma are the only survivors of the Alpha Series, and even Delta was resurrected and then "absorbed" by Eleanor so...can't really count him.

I mean, even ten years later with decayed suits and being warped out of their minds, they are still among the toughest enemies encountered in the game. You're telling me that at least one didn't "make it"? Yet, that little scrawny Poole survived? Whatever, get out of here...

Anyway, to my F.E.A.R. readers, I promise that the character is not who you probably thought of when you saw the name. I assure you that the name is just a coincidence. Granted, they have a similar friendship with the main character but beyond that, trust me, they are not the same character. I am not that lazy xD. In my defense, there are only a few cool sounding Greek letters and most of them are already overused in other stories.

Speaking of which, any similarities to characters with the same name in other stories is purely just a coincidence.

I hope a "wingman" doesn't ruin the story for the people that have taken the time to read my story so far. It is just the kind of stuff that I like to write. I put off posting this new chapter for several days because I was worried that it might ruin the story for some people. I hope it doesn't. The story will still be dark :)

Read and review if you want.

* * *

As I stood, Sinclair said, "Take a breath, son. You did it. Now, just let her ride on your shoulders and she'll trust you like her own Daddy." I briefly wondered how much of the fight he had witnessed because he seemed rather calm for what I had just done. Either he had missed the part where I had eviscerated the Bouncer, or he was even more of a sociopath than I had originally thought.

I looked down at Eleanor, who remarked teasingly as she raised her free left hand up towards me, "I'm telling the other girls that _I_ have the best daddy." Laughing sarcastically with my repeated grunts, I reached down with my gauntlet-encased left hand. I gently grasped her underneath her right shoulder and began to lift her up. As she passed in front of my eye, she smiled brightly with her yellow eyes glowing brightly with joy as she gently touched the surface of my segmented eye with her small, pale left hand.

After I had raised her close enough, she clamored over my armored head and down onto her little throne, or what was left of it after the Bouncer had crushed me against the wall. A few moments later, I heard her tap on the top of my head to indicate that she was ready. As I turned to face back towards the exit, Sinclair said, "We're in business. Now, there are corpses all over Rapture, and Lil' Dimples there can sniff out the ADAM on 'em. Find one."

My radio deactivated. I mentally fumed about how incompetent my allies seemed to think I was. Just because I let some asshole get the drop on me with the Hypnotize plasmid, that did not mean that I was incompetent. Seconds later, the Eleanor-controlled Little Sister chirped, "Mr. Bubbles, come on!" I smiled beneath my armored face and began to make my way out of the restaurant. As I did, I stopped at the Circus of Values vending machine behind the bar to restock my supplies. Afterwards, I began to leave the room.

However, as I reached the ornate bulkhead, the intercom system activated. Sofia preached, "Ryan was wrong. To hand sufficient power to any individual is to create a tyrant. We must therefore eradicate tyranny at the genetic level. To end sin itself. That is the family. That is our cause." I mentally snorted. Clearly, she had lost her mind. To remove the instinct for survival, which, ultimately, she would have to do, was to make the human being lamer than a horse with a broken leg.

Knowing my thoughts, Eleanor remarked, "Mother has become the very thing that she despises and she is so deluded that she doesn't even realize it." I grunted in response. As I walked down the steps outside the lounge, I heard a woman muttering to herself at the other end of the walkway. I could feel Eleanor's growing excitement as I drew closer with my upgraded drill and Electro Bolt plasmid at the ready.

I had entered the walkway when a woman dressed in torn formal attire and wearing a fancy mascaraed ball bunny mask with a broken right ear walked from the left side area out into the open. She swung her golf club, dragging the metal tip along the tiled floor in the down swing, as she muttered to herself. Somehow remaining oblivious to me, she turned to walk through the nearby open bulkhead.

I willed a blast of Electro Bolt into her. As she convulsed while blue electrical arcs surrounded her disfigured form, I swung my drill's sharp point into the back of her skull. The blow cracked open her head and the women flew forward through the open doorway. There, she collapsed into a heap on the floor. Meanwhile, Eleanor chirped, "Let's dance with them daddy!"

I laughed with repeated grunts at her playfulness and continued onwards. Moving past the dead Splicer, I returned to the crossroads of the amusement park. As we neared the lit sign above the left-hand side path that read, "Gift Shop", Eleanor asked politely, "Oh, can we go there daddy?" I gave off a quizzical grunt. She replied, "Pretty please, daddy? I've been a good girl. Promise."

I mentally sighed and then made my way towards the gift shop. Due to the silence of the cavernous-like area, my every bootfall thundered through the space. I entered the gift shop to find one of Ryan's old security guards standing inside the store. He was wielding a revolver and was facing my direction. As I approached, he yelled, "You're kind ain't welcome here!" Ignoring the deranged man, I continued forward.

He panicked and began to retreat further into the store as he yelled, "Help! Make him listen!" I mentally sighed as I chased after him as he ran towards the checkout counter of the upper floor. Why did these fools think that they were a match for me? Unless there were swarms of them, they had little chance against something like me.

I had been purpose-built for one thing and one thing only: to kill, to protect my little girl with my life against genetically modified supermen and women. These people should have been fleeing from me. Sofia must have riled them up even better than I wanted to believe her capable of doing. I began to wonder if the rumor about Ryan Industries installing pumps in the ventilation networks to release pheromones that would allow him to control the citizens of Rapture was true.

There was no way that was true. Ryan may have been an egotistical monster, but he believed in freewill. In fact, it was the cornerstone of Rapture. Surely, he would have never betrayed his own beliefs by removing the people's freewill. Big Daddies and Little Sisters were one thing. Our existence was the result of the brutal reality that came along with the plasmid industry. Betraying your own cornerstone belief was something else entirely. I shivered slightly as the full extent of the Hell that Rapture had been through hit me.

I may have hated Ryan at one time, but I idolized the man in a way. Self-built industrialist, ironclad will, extremely intelligent, and charismatic enough to convince people that Rapture was possible, Andrew Ryan was a true god among men. However, for all of his strengths, Ryan was a walking loudspeaker for Social Darwinism and Capitalism. He believed that by the force of his or her will, anyone could achieve greatness. He viewed beggars and the impoverished as lazy individuals that could pull themselves out of their situations.

Individuals like Sofia Lamb and Frank Fontaine were able to capitalize on Ryan's attitude towards the less fortunate and the city had begun to turn on its once beloved founder. Still, I refused to believe that things had disintegrated to the point that he had betrayed his own belief in freewill. The man had an army of Big Daddies and, following his seizure of Fontaine Futuristics, had the market cornered on plasmids and tonics. Plus, he had that little clubhouse of his up in Hephaestus. The events that led to someone managing to kill him was one story that I was dying to hear.

As I reached the top of the short flight of steps in pursuit of the Leadhead Splicer, I came face to face with two other individuals. One, a woman wielding a revolver, was past the checkout counter over in front of the large panes of glass that allowed someone to look at the surrounding city to my left. The second, a man concealing his face with a welding mask and wielding a section of pipe, was behind the counter directly in front of me. The original Splicer had retreated back past the counter and towards the toys inside the little side area behind the checkout counter.

Upon seeing me, the other two individuals screamed. Then, the woman began to fire upon me with her revolver. I growled as the small caliber rounds hit my form. Eleanor screamed with terror in her voice, "Unzip 'em daddy!" Burning fury filled me and I let out a loud roar that vibrated the air. Red light illuminated the section of the counter that I was facing as my roar continued to rock the air of the small shop.

The individuals briefly hesitated as fright entered their body expressions. The woman even covered her ears as I finished my enraged roar. Stomping towards the male Leadhead Splicer, I teased the throttle of my drill in anticipation of my assault on the cowardly individual that was not man enough to face me without his disgusting friends. Ignoring the pain as he fired his haphazardly repaired revolver point blank into my armored bulk, I grabbed him by the neck with my left hand. He gasped for breath and comically grabbed my wrist with his left hand in a pathetic attempt to force me to release my grip. I lifted him up into the air and he pressed the muzzle of his revolver against the glass surface of the middle segment of my eye.

A click was the weapon's only response when he pulled the trigger. Hearing the Thuggish Splicer about to swing his pipe at me, he apparently felt the need to announce his actions verbally, I turned to face him. I used the former security guard in my grasp like a shield. When the other man swung his pipe, he only succeeded in hitting his friend in the back. I revved up my drill and, with the industrial grade tool's motor whirling at full throttle, I sent it through the chest of the man.

The sound of crunching bone filled the air as blood flew out of the man and onto the exterior of the copper chest plate, that was the lower part of my head, that was the majority of my torso. As my drill's whirling point exited the back of the screaming former security guard, it penetrated into the man behind him. I heard the Splicer drop his pipe and ripped my drill back through the first man. Tossing the corpse off to the left, I moved towards the Thuggish Splicer.

The bloodied man was attempting to retrieve his pipe section. I finished him off with a swing of my drill. The body collapsed onto the floor and I trampled it as I stomped towards the final Splicer. The disfigured woman fired her revolver but the rounds ricocheted off my copper face. As I closed in, she attempted to reload her sidearm. However, her hands were shaking so uncontrollably that she was unable to reload before I sent an uppercut into the bottom of her chin.

The instant that she gave off a gurgling death rattle, the maddening rage returned to the back of my mind. Eleanor chirped happily, "Daddy is so brave." I smiled slightly beneath my face and returned to the toys. For the first time, I noticed the ghostly sound of a woman singing though I was unable to identify which song it was.

Unfortunately, to my daughter's dismay, the toy racks and bargain bins were mostly empty. Only a few plain plush dolls and metal submarine toys were left. There were several boxes full of teddy bears in the very back of the selection area around a combination safe. As I ripped the safe's swinging door off its hinges, I heard my companion say sorrowfully, "Aw, not even any parts. I want to build another dolly...Mother took mine away so I would forget you."

Kneeling, I rummaged through the safe's contents for useful items. I located around eighty dollars in a money clip though that was the only useful item inside the safe. However, as I began to retract my hand, I saw a baseball inside an airtight clear cube. I was confused as to why it was inside the safe but nonetheless crushed the container in my palm and retrieved the pristine white ball from the safe.

While I was rotating the ball in the palm of my gauntlet-encased left hand, I realized why the owner of the store had bothered to lock up the otherwise worthless piece of sports equipment. On the ball were the signatures of Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine, and Sofia Lamb. I immediately questioned the authenticity of Sofia's signature. The titans of industry would likely sign anything if it got their name out there but the altruist shrink believed that names only further isolated individuals from each other so she only used her name as a formality.

Shrugging, I lifted the ball up towards my daughter. She cried out in excitement when she saw the object and eagerly took it from my grasp. Wanting to investigate the rest of the shop, I turned and made my way to the back of the store. I descended the short flight of steps to the right of the checkout counter and, upon reaching the bottom, I turned to the right and found the flight of stairs that led down to the restrooms. When I reached the bottom floor, I saw a newspaper vending machine against the wall next to two red payphones that were occasionally illuminated by a flickering light fixture mounted on the wall. On the wall in front of me, I saw faded advertisements for a clothing sale and Pink Elephant Whiskey. Meanwhile, the way into the women's restroom was blocked by a shorted out hinged metal gate.

As I walked towards the shorted out gate, I heard a woman crying hysterically somewhere in the men's restroom. I turned and waited for the Splicer to exit the restroom. After about a minute, no one had appeared. Eleanor called out, "Hello?" When there was not a response, I cautiously proceeded into the restroom. I turned left when I neared the wall-mounted advertisement for a Blasich Cigars Ad, though for the first time, I noticed that the child in the ad had roughly half of his face severely burned.

The interior of the restroom was dark and foreboding. The only light source other than the light coming in from the hallway was the sparking electrical cables descending from an open section of ceiling in the far back corner that looked suspiciously like a Splicer's escape route. I also noticed that the closest bathroom stall was conveniently closed as if there was someone inside of it. As if the stereotype for places that you would be ambushed in was not complete, there was a noticeable cloud of smoke wafting through the room just above the floor in a way that resembled fog.

Eleanor asked, "We aren't going to fall for this are we?" I grunted as I moved forward towards the hole in ceiling. As I reached the spot, which had a huge pile of debris in the shape of a mound beneath it, I heard a toilet flush. Realizing that the Splicer had been inside the stall, I wheeled around with my drill at the ready.

However, to my confusion, the only sight that greeted me was an empty restroom. The stall door was now open but there were not any signs of the former occupant. That was impossible. Even Houdini Splicers made a noise when they used their Teleportation Plasmid. How had the Splicer managed to get away so fast and so silently?

I made my way to the stall to investigate. On the chipped white tile wall just before the stall was a Hop Up Cola Ad. The happy white bunny drawn on the ad was completely out of place in the dimly lit room that had the faint stench of death hovering in the air. As I stood in the threshold of the door, I noticed that my shadow on the wall was joined by another. Eleanor whined as the woman moved close behind us. Her cries of fear sent a jolt of rage through me. I let off an animalistic guttural roar while red light appeared on the tiled wall as the golden yellow light emitting from my eye changed to its hellish red.

When I turned around to eliminate the threat to my charge, I was struck across my armored face with a golf club. Sparks flew as the metal end of the makeshift weapon struck the copper surface of my head. The disfigured denizen tried to swing back in the opposite direction to hit me a second time. However, I caught the club with my left hand just below the union of the, now bent, rusted tip and the shaft. Then, I snatched the comically useless weapon from her grasp.

I quickly rotated the golf club so that the tip was pointed to the left and then, with one mighty swing, I buried it into the side of the Splicer's skull. The force of the impact snapped the shaft and I was left holding about half of it. The other half remained with the tip. With a squirt of blood gushing out of the wound, the corpse fell backwards onto the dirty floor. With calmness once again restored inside my mind, I exited the restroom.

However, I had no sooner reached the exit before I heard several Splicers yelling in the gift shop. They must have heard the commotion and entered the shop as a group to kill me in order to appease Sofia. Normally, I would have proceeded up the stairs to neutralize them. However, I stopped as I sensed that something was wrong. Eleanor became as quiet as she could as she sensed my alarm through our bond. Together, we listened to the unfolding situation upstairs in the shop.

The Splicers were yelling at each other, but it was a mixture of berating each other and general stress-induced vocalizations of vulgarity. One of them, a man that had an air of superiority in his tone, yelled, "You stupid fucking clods! I told you to watch our ass! How the fuck do you miss a Metal Daddy? Fucking useless! All of you!"

A woman yelled back, "Lamb said that he would have a mark!"

Another man, this one having less confidence in his voice, muttered, "We shouldn't have left Saunders and Christie out there..."

The first man snapped, "Survival of the fucking fittest! Maybe if you had been watching the entrance like you should have been, a Metal Daddy wouldn't be about to come and bust your skull!"

A different woman, though this one sounded much younger than the first, remarked, "Hey! Leave him alone asshole! You know he hasn't had any ADAM in nearly a month..."

The first man snapped, "Laddy-fucking-da! I am about to be a Metal Daddy's Betty because of you lazy shits!"

At that moment, I heard the security door for the gift shop open. The Splicers screamed as they fired their small arms. A myriad of different emotions and thoughts raced through my mind. A Metal Daddy? I had not anticipated another Mass Production Model to lumber his way into the area for at least another half hour. In its current state, Ryan Amusements would not be a "high traffic" area for the gather/protector pairs.

Contrary to what the average individual might think, protectors were not sent out from Point Prometheus and Hephaestus thoughtlessly. The Protector Program was built, organized, and operated just like a business. That should not be any surprise. After all, it was Rapture. There were standardized schedules and streamlined procedures.

However, while I had intimate knowledge of the schedule for my kind, I only had a general understanding of the schedule for the big, smelly, brutes. As different lines of research and development, we were not privy to each others daily schedules and, at least on my kind's part, we did not care enough to want to know anything about the tin men other than how to kill them proficiently should a Splicer turn one against us.

The reason for the meticulous schedule was that Big Daddies were expensive in terms of resources and time to build. The original Mass Production Models were never intended to be protectors so very little, if any, thought was given to mitigating the cost of their construction. After all, they were the poor souls that were intended to maintain Rapture's infrastructure. Meanwhile, my kind was purposely engineered and manufactured for the express purpose of being protectors for the gatherers.

When Dr. Alexander saw Subject Zeta crying in front of the Gather's Garden Vending Machine in the main building of Fontaine Futuristics, he was so disturbed by the sight that he almost instantly pulled the plug on our program. Due to our limited number of only approximately fifteen to seventeen active protectors at any given time and our "impracticality", new protectors were needed. The lumbering mindless drones were experimented on and eventually, the exact details were never revealed to the public or to us, they were turned into protectors.

However, they were expensive and their gear was nonrenewable due to the grafting process. The cobbled together appearance of the new model that I had seen outside the resort indicated that the new wardens of Rapture were running out of parts to build their Big Daddies. Moreover, the Bouncer that I had just killed looked much older than that new Big Daddy. Perhaps, he had been built before the Civil War and his suit had decayed. I began to suspect that Sofia's "Family" had completely run out of traditional Big Daddy suits and were relying upon the surviving Mass Production Big Daddies built during my time.

A loud, guttural roar tore me away from my thoughts as it suddenly rocked the air of the gift shop. The roar struck a chord inside of me. There was no mistaking that noise. Only one creature in all of Rapture made that sound: an Alpha Series Big Daddy. The call had gone out and I answered it. Letting out my own guttural roar, I thundered my way up the stairs to assist my brother. Unlike our iconic counterparts, we did not leave each other to fend for himself. Whenever possible, we assisted each other.

Upon reaching the gift shop, I saw six Splicers. Two were the women that I had heard earlier and four were men. The two women were both Leadhead Splicers and taking cover behind the checkout counter on the left platform section of the room while only two of the men were wielding revolvers and were taking cover behind the railing of the much smaller right platform. Meanwhile, the other two men, who were both wearing torn dockworkers' attire and wielding lead pipes, were rushing down the zigzag path in the center of the room between the two platforms towards an Alpha Series Big Daddy that appeared to have just entered the shop because the bulkhead was still raised up.

The sight of my brother filled me with indescribable relief. There was another Alpha Series! I knew that there had to be at least one! His suit was nearly identical to mine with its rivet-covered copper helmet with a glowing golden yellow segmented eye, dark blue canvas skin with brown leather armor, weighted diving belt and boots as well as the weight hanging down from his helmet by two coils of rope, diving knife secured to his left hip at a slight angle to allow ease of access, electric blue EVE-filled tube running down the interior of his left arm, metal mounts for a drill running down the exterior of his right arm, and gauntlet encased left hand. Even his left glove had the white numbers, "OO1" on its wrist strap.

However, unlike mine, his suit was slightly weathered from age but his suit otherwise still had a fairly pristine appearance. Moreover, in his right hand's vice-like grip and mounted to his right arm was a noticeably repaired Prototype Rivet Gun. I saw the tip of a Big Sister's needle-like weapon sticking out of the weapon and I realized that it was the same one that I had seen in the Security Wing. My brother must have taken the machine gun, located parts for his favored weapon, and then returned to repair it. I could see that he had replaced the air tank and the nozzle. Moreover, the nozzle was now modified to be a high-pressure nozzle in order to increase the weapon's damage output.

In the low light of the shop, I was unable to identify my brother. Eleanor informed me through our bond, "_That's him, Father! He is the one that gathered enough ADAM for Tenenbaum to help me revive you_." Meanwhile, my brother had dropped the two Thuggish Splicers with headshots and had attempted to engage the men on the right platform. The four Leadhead Splicers fired their sidearms at my unknown brother. The soft-nosed .38 caliber rounds ricocheted off his armored head, flying off to impact the walls and nearby miscellaneous items in the shop.

The cowardly Splicers were working in tandem. When my brother would fire his Rivet Gun at one of them, the others would emerge from cover and fire their revolvers. However, having heard my roar and thundering boot falls, the two women turned and began to fire upon me as the older one that was clad in torn, moldy, socialite attire screamed in panic, "Animal!" I growled in pain as the rounds impacted my form and began to move towards them with my drill at the ready and my left hand surrounded by blue electrical arcs.

As I stomped towards them, Eleanor yelled with a trace of anger in her otherwise robotic sounding Little Sister voice, "Nobody hurts MY Daddy!" The two deranged women stood as I reached them. The nearest one tried to club me with the grip of her revolver but I electrocuted her with a blast of Electro Bolt and then followed up with a swing of my modified drill. The razor sharp tip of my industrial grade tool gouged out the right side of her skull as I struck her across her face. When the corpse fell backwards onto the tiled floor, and thus getting in my way, I unceremoniously trampled it as I chased after the fleeing second Splicer.

When the fleeing woman circled around the back of the counter and began to sprint towards the exit, as my brother had moved towards the two men, I used Telekinesis to levitate the nearby cash register and then launched into the back of her lumpy head. One of the sharp corners of the metal object made contact with the Splicer's skull with a sickening wet crack. She cried out in both shock and agony as she fell down the flight of steps to the regular level of the shop.

I rushed after her and, upon reaching the bleeding denizen, who was trying to get up, I placed my armored left foot on her lower back and forced her back down. As she cried out in fear, I revved up my drill. The room was filled with the rumbling mechanical roar of my drill's motor as I thrust the whirling tip into the back of the already cracked open skull. Seconds later, it was all over. I ripped my drill's tip out of the corpse while I removed myself from the top of its back.

Powering down my drill, I looked around to see my brother moving towards me from where he appeared to have been purchasing more rivets from the El Ammo Bandito Vending Machine in front of the other platform. I waited until he reached me before I let out a grunt. Our voice boxes had been surgically modified, but my kind had created a language out of the sounds that we could still make. Hence, we could communicate audibly with grunts that sounded simple to an observer but, in reality, could convey many different words or phrases that changed with subtle variations in tone.

Hence, I had asked, "Alpha?"

My brother raised his left hand up in front of his head in a salute as he replied with a grunt, "Subject Alpha, at your service, sir." Then, he dropped his salute and extended his hand towards me as he finished, "It's good to see you again, Delta."

I smiled beneath my copper face before I shook my old friend's hand firmly as I grunted, "Likewise, my friend." As we released our grip on each others hand, I asked, "Where's Emily?" Emily was Alpha's charge. All the Little Sisters were close, but Eleanor and Emily were particularly close, even going so far as to remember the name of the others protector. Hence, I was called, "Papa Delta" by Emily and, respectively, Eleanor called Alpha, "Papa Alpha".

My friend replied, "She's alive somewhere...she's one of the Big Sisters now."

Curious, I asked, "How do you know that?"

He raised his Rivet Gun up so that I would see the broken tip of a Big Sister's weapon and explained, "She was the one that Sofia sent after me. She must have recognized me because she let me go."

The Eleanor-controlled Little Sister said over the top of my head, "Hi, Papa Alpha. I am sorry that I did not recognize you without your symbol. I should have known that you were the one that Tenenbaum reactivated. Other than Father, only you could have pulled off gathering so much ADAM...especially those sessions in Persephone right under Mother's nose. Don't worry about Emily, Alpha. Mother has her here with me. After she disobeyed her order to kill you, Mother locked her in the quarantine chamber with me until she agrees to follow the order. She says hi, that she is sorry that she attacked you, and that she wants you to come with us to the surface."

Alpha looked at my temporary charge for a moment in silence before he let out a laugh similar to mine. Then, he let out a grunt as he curtsied for Eleanor to mimic a stereotypical "knight". She giggled in response. Then, he grunted, "It appears that we have the same objective, sir. Think a joint op is in order? Granted, my programming has not been working right ever since they turned my daughter into a Big Sister so I do not have an Aggression Response anymore, but my aim is still proficiently pinpoint, and my mind remains my own."

I smiled beneath my face before I slapped his right shoulder with the palm of my gauntlet-encased left hand as I grunted, "I wouldn't have it any other way, my old friend. Come on, we need to gather enough ADAM for Incinerate in order to get out of this shithole."

He asked, "Couldn't we just leave through the airlock?"

I groaned before I explained, "I have to babysit Sinclair so he will guide me to Fontaine Futuristics."

My brother grunted with noticeable bitterness, "Sinclair? The man that sold us out? Why don't we just leave him to rot like he did to us?"

I smirked before I explained, "Because he needs us."

Alpha was silent for a moment before he remarked, "Does he now? Interesting...I forgot how manipulative you could be, sir. I'll play along then."

Eleanor giggled and then said, "Two Daddies? This is funny. I'm Daddy. No, I'm Daddy." I laughed with my repeated grunts briefly, but we had a job to do, so I grunted at her. I heard her sniff the air before she said, "ADAM is near...go back to the crosswalk, Father." Eagerly following my beautiful master's orders, I moved towards the main room. Subject Alpha moved beside me on my left with his Prototype Rivet Gun at the ready and I noticed that he also had his left hand up with a miasma around his ported digits.

As we entered the main room, I noticed signs of Alpha's recent fight with Sofia's hit squad. A female Splicer's corpse was lying prostrate in front of the ornate nearby column on our left. When we moved close enough, I observed the bloody wound with an industrial grade rivet imbedded in its center on the back of her deformed head where the brainstem had once connected to her skull. Upon seeing me observing the corpse, Alpha commented, "Just like you always reminded us, sir: sever the brainstem and they are dead before they hit the floor."

As we moved further across the "bridge" towards the entrance to the Hall of the Future, Eleanor suddenly cried out, "Down there, Father." Seeing a missing section of railing, I moved towards it to look down. Upon nearing it, I noticed several bloody footprints on the tiled floor. I reached the opening and peered down to see the corpse of a male Thuggish Splicer.

The body was lying prostrate in a pool of blood just before the entrance to the propaganda machine called Journey to the Surface. A few inches away from the body was a rusted red pipe wrench that I assumed to be the former denizen's weapon. The two sections of railing were lying on either side of the corpse and the body itself was on top of several pieces of rubble. To the left of the body was a barrel that had oil seeping out of it and a large, tall, flat shipping crate.

The clubfooted corpse was the "angel", as indicated by the subtle glowing of the body due to my bond with Eleanor and the new Little Sister. Not bothering to take the stairs, I stepped over the side of the opening. I landed hard on the tiled floor, making a loud crashing sound and cracking the section of tile beneath my feet. My brother landed beside me, making an equally thunderous noise. I turned to face the body and my built-in radio activated. Sinclair addressed me with his southern accented voice, "She's got a juicy one! But when she starts drainin' out the ADAM, the Splicers will come runnin'. Be ready before you set her down on that body."

As my radio deactivated, Alpha commented, "So, they treat you like the most incompetent Big Daddy in all of Rapture too huh?" I groaned in response. In preparation for the gathering session, we moved to place traps and hack any nearby machine that could help the Splicers.

Alpha placed a row of trap rivets on the edge of the opening in the railing and then a vertical row of them at the top of the flight of stairs that was closest to the body. Meanwhile, I rewired the health station located on the opposite side of the support wall for the bridge to be a trap for any Splicer that tried to use it to heal themselves. We did not have to worry about the staircase on the opposite side of the bottom floor since the majority of the Splicers would take the most obvious routes and the few that did use the staircase would easily be dealt with.

As a precaution, I also moved the barrel away from where it was in case one of the Splicers had a sudden shot of coherent thought and used it against us. I placed it in front of the Circus of Values and El Ammo Bandito Vending Machines, which were against the nearby support wall on our side. It would serve as an "ace in the hole" should the Splicers overwhelm our position.

Then, with Subject Alpha taking position further back near the locked bulkhead leading to the ride to provide covering fire with his Rivet Gun, I moved to stand next to the body. I knelled enough for Eleanor to hop down onto the tiled floor safely. After I sensed that she had lowered herself down to the ground, I stood back up and then looked down at her as she happily pointed at the body before her.

She said something as well, but my radio activated and Sofia preached at me loud enough to overpower my charge's voice, "That is a child of the Family, not a toy for you to exploit and discard. It is fitting that you expire here – one more forgotten curio in Ryan's shrine to the self."

By then, Eleanor had started to gather the ADAM inside the corpse. The sick suction noise filled the air as she repeatedly thrust the comically oversized needle into the body before pulling the trigger of her gathering tool. Sinclair advised me, "Here they come! Keep the Splicers off her now 'til she finishes or they'll never give up the hunt!"

The air was filled with the yells of the incoming deranged members of Sofia's flock as they descended upon our position like a pack of ravenous wolves. I submitted to my Protector Instincts and razor sharp focus returned to my mind. Meanwhile, I began to emit a rumbling, threatening roar as my eye began to emit hellish red light in an attempt to warn any would-be predator to steer clear of my charge.

In the early days, our mere appearance and cries were enough to frighten away any potential threats to our daughters. In fact, it was very rare for an actual incident to occur for several weeks after the official commissioning of our program. It almost became a running joke amongst us that there were so few incidents.

However, that all changed as the pressures of social unrest and ADAM addiction began to take hold in the public. Political Revolution, they said. Rising up against "the tyrant", they said. As Fontaine once said, "Give me a smart mark over a dumb one every time." Yes, Rapture did indeed go to proverbial Hell.

Except in the finest areas of Rapture, Splicers would come out of the woodwork by the dozens whenever we gathered. I could still smell the nauseating stench of blood iron and could still hear the maniacal laughter and agonized screams as clear as I could sense my new surroundings. They just would not stop charging at me even as piles of them would appear at my feet. Why would they not stop? That was all I wanted: for them to stop so that Eleanor was safe and I did not have to kill yet another individual.

If it had not been for the numbing effect of my Protector Instincts and Eleanor's calming presence, I would have had a psychological breakdown from the memories of the carnage that I had caused. It was not losing their bonded daughter that caused some of my brethren to become emotionally unstable wrecks. Some of them just could not live with knowing what they had done and, more specifically, what they had become: a heartless monster that could kill another human being and feel nothing for doing it. After that, they were like zombies as they mindlessly protected their charges and they usually did not last through another gathering session.

Of course, that all suddenly ceased around Christmastime. The public, even Ryan himself, may have been fooled into having a false sense of security as the unrest ceased, but we were not fooled. We knew what was coming. The New Year's Eve Riots confirmed our suspicions, though I had failed to witness the ensuing descent of Rapture into near self-destruction.

A woman wearing a dirty white formal dress, concealing her face with a dirty bridal veil, and wielding a golf club rushed at me from the left side of the support column seconds later. The onslaught had officially commenced. Physically shielding my master by standing directly between her and the incoming Splicers while still allotting Alpha clear avenues of fire on either side of me, I steeled myself to protect her with my life. I was not useless! I may have been an old man, but I could still kill anything that dared to threaten my beautiful master!

As the woman neared me, I electrocuted her with a blast of Electro Bolt and then bashed her across her face with my drill. The usual stream of blood, flash, and bone fragments exited the side of the Splicer's cracked skull as the classic combo neutralized her. Her body was crumbling to the ground just as three more Thuggish Splicers, all three of them being clad in moldy security guard attire and wielding batons, rushed towards us from around the same side of the wall. Meanwhile, a hideously deformed lone Thuggish Splicer rushed around the right side of the wall wielding a red pipe wrench as he screamed, "You ain't her real Dad!"

The high-pitched report of Alpha's modified Prototype Rivet Gun filled the air as he took aim at the incoming group. My brother was not exaggerating about the retention of his skills. We used to call him "The Typewriter" because of his prowess with his weapon of choice. Any concerns that I had had moments prior were silenced as he dropped each Splicer with a clean headshot as he three fired standard rivets in rapid succession.

As the lone Splicer neared me, he cried out as he lunged towards me in a full body swing of his wrench. I quickly knelled and, as the man missed me and lost his balance, I reached forward and grabbed his less mutated right leg with my gloved left hand. Standing back up, I flipped him over my left shoulder. He landed hard next to Eleanor, who was drinking from her needle's baby bottle reservoir. The man cried out in confusion as he struggled to catch his breath and get to his feet.

Meanwhile, I noticed that Eleanor was unusually calm as she continued to gather despite the fact that a wheezing Splicer was lying mere inches away from her. Before he could recover, I stomped down on the top of his skull with my heavy, armored right foot. A sick crunching sound filled the air as I succeeded in crushing the man's skull. Meanwhile, I heard Alpha firing his Rivet Gun and, when I turned back to look towards the support wall, I saw two new bodies on the ground just beyond the left path with a single rivet in their heads.

Eleanor assured us as she continued to thrust her tool into the body and extract the ADAM, "Soon Daddy, soon." I heard the Trap Rivets on the upper floor fire and then heard the death rattles of several Splicers. Seconds later, two more former security guards in moldy, mud-covered trench coats rushed towards me with batons in their right hands. Meanwhile, behind me, I heard the distinct sound of cutting torches burning their way through the security bulkhead.

I willed a blast of Electro Bolt into the first guard. As the denizen convulsed while electric arcs danced around his, I shattered the front of the man's skull with a swing of my drill. Blood and bone fragments erupted out of the Splicer's face as his corpse fell backwards onto the tiled floor. The other guard shoved the falling body out of his way as he continued to rush at me with his baton raised above his head.

When he reached me, I sent the hardened tip of my drill into his left kneecap. The resulting wet popping sound indicated that my strike had shattered his knee. The former park employee cried out in agony as he collapsed onto his hands and knees before me. Growling, I raised my drill up above my head with its tip pointed downwards and then thrust it straight down into the top of the struggling Splicer's skull. The tip of my heavy-duty tool easily penetrated straight through his skull and exited out through the Splicer's nasal cavity.

Fearing that more Splicers were about to rush at us, I stomped down on the corpse just below the neck and unceremoniously ripped my bloodied weapon free from the former Splicer's skull. After moving to stand in front of my charge once again, I strained my senses to detect new Splicer arrivals. Moments passed but none appeared. The only perceivable threat was the new arrivals cutting their way through the ornate bulkhead behind us.

Shifting our attention, we turned and focused on the rapidly failing watertight bulkhead. The three independent balls of sparks were quickly moving to the edges of the door. As the sparks approached the edges, we tightened our grip on our respective weapon. Suddenly, Eleanor announced with a happy tone, "Tada! Come on, Daddy!" No more than a second later, the bulkhead exploded outwards. We both roared in agony as hot metal shrapnel peppered our enormous bulks.

Two male Leadhead Splicers emerged from the smoke and fired their haphazardly repaired revolvers at us. Unfortunately, for them, the smoke prevented them from accurately firing their small caliber sidearms and Alpha quickly silenced them both with headshots. We both looked at each other and exchanged a silent acknowledgement of gratitude for the others assistance.

Returning to my temporary charge, I noticed that all of the bodies had a blue butterfly pinned to their attire like a badge. I had seen similar butterflies scribbled on walls in reference to Sofia's "Family". Why a butterfly? Clearly, it stood for something but I was unable to infer what it was. Perhaps, I would uncover the meaning during my quest to reach my daughter. By then, I had reached my blue and white dressed charge.

Eleanor smiled up at me as she injected the needle of her tool into my upper left thigh. As she injected my share of the ADAM, I felt the familiar feelings of euphoria and energy. It felt molten hot as it coursed through my veins, which caused me to shutter slightly. My ADAM-starved body eagerly welcomed the substance as if it was food, which, for Alpha Series Big Daddies and presumably Big Sisters, it actually was as a consequence of the massive amount of ADAM that was required to splice our bodies into the walking juggernauts that we had to be. Just a little more and I would have enough to purchase the basic form of Incinerate. Eleanor retracted her needle and turned towards my old friend.

However, he waved his left hand and then grunted with gratitude in his tone, "I have enough to hold me over until your father can purchase Incinerate, Miss Eleanor. Tenenbaum allotted me some of the ADAM that I helped her collect."

The Eleanor-controlled Little Sister nodded and then looked up at me. I noticed that golden yellow light illuminated her deathly pale skin. My eye must have returned to emitting its standard color. Raising her left hand towards me, she teased me, "Are we going to be together again, Daddy?" I smiled beneath my armored face as I lowered myself down to a kneeling position. Eleanor giggled and then climbed up onto her throne.

As she did, my built-in radio activated. Seconds later, Sinclair addressed me, "Now you know the stakes, son. But a plasmid costs a bit more ADAM yet. Keep it up. I see you have made a friend too. The more the merrier, I say."

I heard Eleanor sniff the air. However, she began to whine with fear. I gave off a quizzical grunt. She explained with her robotic sounding voice, "We have to go through the scary place to get to the angel." Her innocence struck me in my heart. Even after all this time, she was still afraid of the Journey to the Surface ride. I assured her with the gentlest voice that I could rumble through my surgically modified voice box that we would protect her.

Subject Alpha grunted a similar assurance and she finally agreed to be taken through the propaganda machine. After replenishing our supplies at the nearby vending machines, we began to proceed towards the opening that led to the entrance of the ride. As we did, my companion quickly asked, "Sir, just curious: how did you know it was me even though my mark has been removed?"

I smirked beneath my face before I replied, "Because only you would have chosen that repaired pea shooter over a .50 caliber machine gun, Alpha."

He retorted, "Only you would have chosen that barbaric contraption of metal over an actual weapon, sir."

I laughed with my repeated grunts before I replied, "To each his own, my friend." By then, we had reached the opened bulkhead and proceeded into the ride.


	7. Chapter 7: They grow up so fast

Ch. 7: They grow up so fast

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the wait.

I have been amazed by the attention that this story is getting. It is rivaling the traffic that my main F.E.A.R. story gets and…that thing is 40+ chapters long, is at 300,052 words, has 55 fav's and has 53 follows.

So, seriously, thank you everyone for your support.

By the way, I want to assure you that this story will not become the monster of a story that my F.E.A.R. story has. To be honest, I did not set out to create such a long story, since it was my first ever fanfic and the first thing that I ever posted, but it kind of took on a life of its own. Plus, I have a thing for Alma…so…it got a little out of hand.

Anyway,

I am aware that in the game Delta uses his right hand to exorcise the Little Sisters when he saves them but my Delta has a thing about making himself "vulnerable" by removing his drill from his right hand so I improvised.

Oh, and yes...it is a reference to the Brotherhood of Steel from the Fallout series. Because any waster can lumber about the wastes but only the truly elite can wear sexy T-45d power armor and wield Gatling Lasers and Miniguns like bosses.

Steel be with you xD

Coming soon: the wrath of the first Big Sister.

Read and review if you want.

* * *

As we walked through the forcibly opened bulkhead, I asked with a grunt, "Have you made any contact with the rest of the Brotherhood of Steel?" As a private joke, we sometimes referred to ourselves as the Brotherhood of Steel, though now that most of us were presumably dead or worse, I feared that the "Brotherhood" part no longer had any relevance.

My brother replied immediately, "No, sir." It did not take much effort on my part to know that he was lying. I had accepted the heart-wrenching truth of what being dead for ten years meant. The men that I had called my brothers were long gone. As skilled and resilient as we were, even we could not last forever. We were not fighting the Splicers as much as we were the march of time. Roll the dice enough times and your number would be up sooner or later.

As we entered the dark foreboding entrance to the ride, I saw the automaton of the big man himself: Andrew Ryan. The machine was positioned to give the impression that Ryan was casually sitting behind his desk with his left arm bent as he laid back in his chair and supporting himself by placing his left hand near his left hip. Meanwhile, his right leg was crossed over his left.

The ravages of time had taken its toll on the machine's exterior. While the light brown business suit, I doubted that he even owned any other clothing other than that monkey suit, and matching pants were still identifiable, the rest of the machine's exterior was rough with chipped paint and pot marks. Around the automaton was the imitation of an office with bookshelves against the wall behind it and with filing cabinets against the walls on the left and right.

Standing in front of the desk, I wondered aloud with a grunt, "I wonder how someone managed to kill him."

To my surprise, Alpha, who had moved to stand next to me, replied, "Some fool used an EMP bomb to gain entrance into his clubhouse up in Hephaestus. Then, he killed him with his own golf club. Found it sticking in the side of his head with blood everywhere and the man's face heavily bludgeoned."

Shocked, I asked, "It wasn't you was it?"

His shoulders dipped for a moment as if he was sighing before he grunted back, "Negative, sir. Wish I had though."

I asked, "So how do you know all those things?"

He explained, "Emily and I were there while it happened but we never saw who was doing all the shooting. Later, we entered his office and she started stabbing him with her needle."

Confused, I remarked, "I didn't know Ryan was using."

My ally laughed with repeated grunts before he said, "I didn't say that she was gathering from him." I laughed in response. Like Eleanor, Emily retained a large amount of who she had been prior to her forced enslavement as a Little Sister. She had been the daughter of a family that had had owned their own newspaper. Though they ran an admirable paper, her parents had unfortunately ruffled the big man's feathers when they printed an article suggesting that he had been somehow involved in the murder of his mistress. Just like me, they "disappeared". Without parents, Emily was sent to one of the many Little Sister's Orphanage around the city.

As much as I enjoyed being known as the original Big Daddy, in truth, the difference between when Alpha and Emily had been bonded and when Eleanor and I had been bonded was mere hours. Both of our respective "pairs" were favored by the butchers called scientists as being the best candidates for the new procedure.

Looking over at the far left corner, I saw a golf club leaning against the wall next to an oversized golf ball. Smirking beneath my armored face, I moved over to the object and picked up the club with my gloved left hand by its leather grip. After turning around to face the automaton, I let out a grunt of exertion as I swung the golf club at it. The metal tip collided with the right side of the machine's head and, with a shower of sparks and the sound of an automaton's limbs being severed filling the air, sent it flying off to the left. It smashed against the wall with a dull thud. Dropping the club, I exited the mock up of an office.

Eleanor asked, "What was that for Daddy?"

I laughed before I replied, "Just paying my respects to the founder of Rapture my dear Eleanor."

Moving on towards the ride, we passed the pile of boxes on the left and the sealed employee entrance on the right. As we came to the staircase that led down to the now jumbled mess of cars that resembled miniature bathyspheres, I noticed the machine gun leaning against the railing in the corner of the stairs along with an extra box magazine that was lying on the metal floor.

At that moment, a female Splicer dressed in tattered aristocratic attire and wielding a Thompson Submachine Gun appeared on the balcony in the far opposite left corner. Meanwhile, a Thuggish Splicer dressed in security guard attire and wielding a baton rushed out of the open ride entrance below the giant neon yellow sign that read, "Journey to the Surface" and disappeared from view as he entered the maze of jumbled cars. The woman, whose face was covered by a bunny mask, began to shoot at us while she yelled, "I told you about this one. Make him listen."

Two of the rounds struck my frame. To my shock, the rounds easily penetrated my armored hide. I growled loudly in agony as the pain shot through my body like a massive flood of molten metal. When I had been ambushed by Sofia's followers in the booth in the train depot, I had assumed that the massive amount of damage that they had managed to inflict upon me in such a short amount of time was merely due to their close proximity and numbers. However, this time, I realized that there was something else going on.

The standard Thompson Submachine Gun fired .45 ACP pistol rounds. Hence, the designation of "submachine gun" as opposed to "machine gun". .45 ACP was a brutal round at close range against lightly armored targets. However, it lacked in penetration capability due to its pistol cartridge. There was only one round in Rapture that could have just inflicted such damage upon me: .50 BMG or .50 caliber Browning Machine Gun.

More of a small artillery round than a rifle round, the .50 BMG was the brainchild of John Browning who designed it for his revolutionary machine gun, the fabled M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun. Damn near indestructible, the M2 was death incarnate for any living creature foolish enough to get caught in its crosshairs. In my days in the U.S. Navy, we had strapped them into aircraft, ships, and vehicles. However, if the Splicers had bored out their Thompsons to be able to chamber .50 BMG rounds, then they were even more foolish than I had originally thought. The immense size of the round would severely weaken the structural integrity of the Thompsons. It would be a miracle if the weapon did not shatter in their hands.

As the red liquid from the tank on my back healed my wounds, we made our way down the stairs. Electrical arcs danced around my left gauntlet-encased hand and my drill was poised at the ready. We reached the landing and turned to face the entrance of the ride. Before us, there were two cars that were separate from the massive pile of them further down the line. Meanwhile, to our right, there was another sealed employee access door and I could make out a Plasmid container beyond the sealed bulkhead.

Seeing movement behind the second car, I prepared myself for the coming assault. Seconds later, as we slowly moved forward, two male Thuggish Splicers rushed towards us with their batons raised up in the air in their right hands. The high-pitched report of Alpha's modified Rivet Gun sounded through the gloomy space and, almost simultaneously, blood squirted out of the furthest Splicer's face as the industrial-grade projectile imbedded itself into the man's skull.

Meanwhile, I electrocuted the nearest Splicer with a blast of Electro Bolt. The deranged denizen cried out in agony as the high-energy electric arcs danced around his form. Letting out a grunt of exertion, I swung my drill in a powerful singular thrust to the left in an arc. The razor sharp point of my favored weapon struck the right side of the man's head. The power behind my thrust succeeded in allowing my drill to gouge out the portion of the skull around the area of impact.

With the two Splicers neutralized, we continued forward. However, after only a few steps, two more Thuggish Splicers rushed towards us. The first one, a man wielding a pipe wrench and covering his face with a welder's mask, yelled, "A baby! Let me, let me!" The second, a man dressed in security guard attire and wielding a baton, followed behind the first as they both charged at us.

I absentmindedly wondered what could have been motivating them to attack two Big Daddies simultaneously; two Big Daddies that were protecting a Little Sister nonetheless. Bravado only went so far, even for an addict. This was more like a plea for death. They reminded me of the famous Japanese Banzi charges that went straight at entrenched American machine gun emplacements and the Russian Mass Attacks that went straight at the entrenched German machine gun emplacements.

Meanwhile, I had reached up and grabbed the pipe wrench wielding Splicer's right wrist with my gloved left hand as he tried to swing his weapon. Still pondering their motivations, I was only vaguely aware of his cries of pain as I crushed his wrist with my immense strength while I simultaneously revved up my drill and sent its whirling bit into his lightly protected lower torso. Blood flew as the sound of ripping tissue filled the air as my drill powered its way through the Splicer's organs and then through his spinal column.

The groves on my drill's bit acted as an extra hand to keep the man from being able to push himself off the bit as well as drawing him in. By the time that the bloodied tip appeared behind the man, he had become hunched over near my chest, almost resting his head against my right shoulder. Having come to the conclusion that I should not compare Splicers to human beings and to instead compare them to animals, I powered down my drill and then unceremoniously flung the "animal" off to my right. Meanwhile, Alpha had casually dropped the second Splicer with a headshot.

As we continued onward, we came to a wall made out of cars and sheet metal. Continuing along the side of the makeshift barrier, we continued to stomp our way further into the large room. To our right were props that mimicked the buildings of Rapture before the city had fallen into the state of extensive disrepair that I had observed in the train car. The blue light of the surrounding Atlantic Ocean lazily drifted through the cracks in the props.

Moments later, the sight of the purposely scary sign that had evil looking seahorses along its exterior as well as the words, "Journey to the Surface" loomed in front of us above the entrance to the ride. When the ride had been operational, there had been a bulkhead that would seal off the ride itself until the operator started the ride. Judging by the rubble along the path as it made its way up a steep incline beyond the entrance to the ride, that had long since stopped being the case.

After investigating the side room to the left of the cars, which resulted in around forty dollars that was split between the two of us, we returned to the main area. A male Leadhead Splicer had appeared but my brother quickly cut him down with his Rivet Gun. I could feel Eleanor's fear through our bond as we approached the open entrance to the ride and let out a reassuring groan to calm her. She replied with her robotic sounding Little Sister voice, "Don't worry Daddy, I will be brave like a big girl."

Beneath her cute, childish façade, I sensed her desire to prove herself to me. She wanted to prove to me that she was no longer a child so that I would see her as an adult. Despite my uneasiness about her repeated attempts get me to think of her as something more than my charge, I had to admit that, to a certain extent, I was grateful for her affection. The hulking tin men may have been able to lumber about the cold, dark sunken ruins of Rapture in happy ignorance of their miserable plight but my kind was cursed with sentience.

We were very much aware of our plight. We yearned for love, acceptance, and comfort just like any other creature. The typical remark that I had heard before Rapture's Fall was, "What could they possibly be upset about? Just look how strong and invincible they are. There is nothing to be upset about when you are that strong." Our "strength" came at a high cost. Simple connections like the touch of another person were all but lost to us. A sentient mind could only take so much torment before it cracked. As the old expression goes, "Something's got to give."

Our daughters had kept us from that horrible fate. They loved us and we loved them. No matter how miserable our circumstances were, they were always optimistic and happy. Their playful antics could lighten even the heaviest situations. Until our bodies turned cold, we knew that we could always look forward to being with them again when it was time to gather. What could be more natural than to love someone that gave you hope, happiness, a sense of purpose, and loved you in return?

As we began to ascend as we continued to follow the tracks, I noticed a car that was precariously perched at the very top of the incline. My instincts cried out in alarm and I braced myself to counter the ambush should it occur. My suspicions were confirmed seconds later as I heard the female Leadhead Splicer address an unseen Splicer, "Come on, exert yourself! Flatten him out!" Giving off an audible growl, I felt my rage return inside my mind. Shaking the ground, the car began to crash towards us.

Ducking behind the pile of rubble on our left, we dodged the incoming car as it rolled past us to finally smash into the beginning of the group of cars at the bottom of the tracks in the previous room. My Protector Instincts flared inside my mind and I let off a thunderous roar as my segmented eye began to emit red light. As the voices of deranged Splicers filled the air, Eleanor egged me on as she exclaimed, "Unzip 'em Daddy!"

Charging forward around the pile of rubble, I stormed up the flight of stairs. When a female Thuggish Splicer rushed at me with a golf club raised above her head, I trampled her beneath my heavy frame, causing the sound of cracking bones and agonized cries to fill the air as I continued forward. When I reached the top of the incline, I found the female Leadhead Splicer waiting for me to my right as she took cover behind a box that was on the imitation of a dock from the surface.

She raised her modified Thompson's barrel up to open fire at me but she had no more brought it up before I had reached her. Before she could fire her flimsy weapon, I collided with her at full speed. She could not react quickly enough to prevent me from roughly gripped her right shoulder with my left hand. As savage rage continued to flare inside of me, I leaned back and then violently smashed my armored face into her skull. My brutal headbutt succeeded in cracking open the Splicer's skull like a raw egg. Releasing my grip, I left the Splicer in a heap in the pool of water.

As I exited the water, I noticed that what I had assumed to be part of the illusion of the surface, the water, was actually the result of a collapsed section of the ceiling back toward the entrance to the balcony area. There, the ceiling had partially collapsed in a section and a deluge of water was pouring in. Turning back towards the track, I was struck by the deterioration of the ride. The walls were missing whole sections in places and there were piles of rubble every few yards along the path. A derailed car was facing towards me as it leaned against a pile of rubble. The sound of some Splicer crying could be heard over the roar of the incoming water and the crackling of fire. Beyond the derailed car, I saw the first "scare", which was the imitation of an idolized farm house from the surface.

However, such was the extent of the deterioration that I questioned the safety of taking Eleanor, or at least the Little Sister that she was controlling, through the decaying ride. Sensing my worried thoughts, Eleanor chirped, "Don't worry Daddy, I will be okay. I'm always safe with you." I mentally sighed. Eleanor seemed to still be under the false belief that I was "superman".

Hearing a machine being smashed, I turned back behind me to see Alpha destroying the Health Station back in the hallway to the balcony. He picked up the First Aid Kit that the destroyed machine dropped and returned to where we were. He handed it to me and, giving off a grateful grunt, I took it from him. After applying the red liquid soaked bandages to my body so that the excess would refill my tank, we proceeded onward.

The wooden boards beneath us creaked loudly in protest as we proceeded towards the first scare. There, we found the same farm house with the farmer who was tilling the soil, his wife, and his child. As we reached it, suddenly, the recorded voice of Andrew Ryan preached, "On the surface, the farmer tiles the soil, trading the strength of his arm for a home and land of his own."

At that moment, dark music played as red light illuminated the little scene. As it did, two giant hands that were the representation of "big government" descended down from the ceiling to rip off the roof of the house and then pilfer through whatever was inside. As they did, Ryan preached with a darker tone, "But the parasites say _NO! _We are the state! We are God! We demand our share!"

Eleanor cried out in fright but I assured her with my modified voice, "Sweetie, they aren't real. Besides, on the surface, it is called taxation…it pays for government works like road construction and repair…maintenance of buildings…it is an important part of maintaining the country's infrastructure and it is usually not that bad…usually."

She replied, "But Ryan said that they take away your possessions."

I explained, "No, that is not the government. That is called a repossession, sweetie. It is not the government that does that…it is the bank that that individual has taken out a loan with in order to have that piece of property. In which case, that person does not actually _own _said piece of property…the bank does. So, if the payments to pay back the bank stop, then the bank has every legal right to repossess it...after all, it is their property."

She asked, "So, the government taxes its people to maintain the infrastructure and banks only…repossess…things if the individual fails to pay off the loan?"

I smiled beneath my face and then replied, "Exactly, sweetie."

My charge remarked, "That…seems…reasonable."

I replied, "It is most of the time." Having explained the truth behind the first scare, we continued forward to try to find the "angel". Beyond the first scene there was a barrier made out of boxes. Luckily, there was a kind of ramp on the right side of it. The scrapes of wooden boards threatened to buckle under our weight but we managed to get to the other side of the barrier.

As I dropped down onto the track, a male Leadhead Splicer yelled as he shot a nearby barrel. The container exploded and metal shrapnel went flying through the air. Luckily, we were unscathed. The man, dressed in tattered casual attire and with a horribly disfigured head that was barely visible beneath numerous wrapped bandages, ran a few yards down the straight track and took cover behind a shipping box.

I mentally sighed as I saw the second barrel, this one mere inches away from where the man was behind cover. Too easy. I sent a blast of Electro Bolt into the metal container. As the high-voltage arcs of electricity made contact with the exterior of the barrel, it exploded. Shredded by flying shrapnel and engulfed in flames, the man collapsed to the ground as he groaned out a death rattle.

"Daddy, over there." I saw the faint trail appear in the air before me. It led into the room on our right that looked as though animals had ripped their way in through the bulkhead that had once stood there. The yellow neon sign that read, "Ride Maintenance Employees Only" was still hanging above the entrance but the bulkhead and most of the surrounding wall was gone. It looked as though the very panels of the wall had been ripped out in order to remove the entire bulkhead, watertight door and all, from the entrance. Whatever was inside must have been desperately needed by those that had been trapped inside the park.

Meanwhile, to our left, there was an open side area. When we investigated it, we found a sealed employee entrance. However, beside the bulkhead, we found a lever-style switch. As I flipped the lever up, the door audibly opened so loudly that I feared that the Splicer would come running. The moments ticked by but, luckily, none appeared.

Returning to the forcibly opened maintenance bay, I heard a male Splicer mumble to himself as if he was working on something. Upon entering the bay, I found that it had an inner ring and an outer ring layout. The outer "ring" was separated from the inner workshop by a semi-complete wall with glass panels uniformly spaced along its thin skin to allow an observer to peer into the inner workshop area.

Peering through one of the glass windows, I saw a horribly disfigured male Thuggish Splicer working on a malfunctioning sentry turret. Alpha quickly dropped the oblivious man with a headshot and we entered the inner workshop area. On top of the sideways "L" shaped work table in the center for the living room sized space, there was some cartridges of Trap Rivets, which my ally quickly grabbed.

Behind the sentry turret against the wall, I saw a ride car that appeared to have been in the process of being fixed. To my right along the wall, I saw a watertight door that strongly resembled one that an individual would find in a submarine or any other naval vessel. As I walked to the edge of the table, Eleanor chirped happily, "We found it!" Looking down at my feet, I saw a mummified man dressed in a business suit lying on his back. A pipe wrench was a few inches away from his outstretched right arm.

As I looked down at the corpse, the park's intercom system activated and a song began to pipe through its speakers. "_How much is that doggie in the window?_" Ignoring the music, I studied our surroundings. The room had two entrances. Both were compromised by the earlier forced entry by unknown individuals. However, both entrances were narrow and could easily be booby-trapped with Trap Rivets. The malfunctioning sentry gun could easily be repaired and used against the incoming hordes of Splicers. Meanwhile, there was a barrel in the far right corner and a Health Station in the far left corner. 'Hack the Health Station and turn the barrel into a bomb,' my instincts informed me.

I grunted at my brother, "Alpha, place Trap Rivets in the entrances and on the barrel. Destroy the Health Station. I will repair the sentry turret."

He grunted back, "Yes, sir."

As he moved to place the traps, I went over to the side of the sentry. Brainchild of Gilbert Alexander, the standard sentry turret was based around a M1919A4 Browning Machine Gun, which was a scaled down version of the .50 Caliber M2 Browning Machine Gun. The belt-fed, recoil-operated M1919 fired 30-06 Springfield rounds at a rate of two hundred to four hundred rounds per minute, respectively, depending upon the condition of the ammunition and the operator. Housed in a jerry-rigged revolving platform, the machine gun was perfect for suppressive fire. Upgraded variants were based around grenade launchers and even, in Minerva's Den, Ion Lasers.

I examined the sentry, which was arcing electricity around itself, and found that the electric motor was damaged from what appeared to be a small caliber gunshot and the circuit breaker on the device was preventing the machine from operating to prevent further damage. I could bypass the circuit to make the turret work for a few minutes but, shortly afterwards, the motor would fry itself and the turret would be useless. The primitive CPU would need to be reprogrammed to prevent it from attacking us. Perhaps, I could overclock its parameters to make it hostile to anything other than a Big Daddy.

In truth, I understood very little about the machine's ability to judge friend from foe. How something could be so primitive yet so advanced was beyond my ability to understand. Most of the devices in Rapture were science fiction compared to what the surface possessed. Alexander considered us to be dumb brutes so, even as products of the same company, originally, before Ryan Industries began to manufacture the sentries as well, we were not educated on the designs of the sentries.

Removing the back panel of the CPU, I found the internal parts of the sentry and "overclocked" the parameter meter, which resembled a small wheel, to target anything between a Big Daddy and a Little Sister. Then, ripping out the wire that attached the breaker between the motor and its power source, I forcefully bypassed the turret's circuit protector. I connected the wire that was connected to the battery straight into the wire that was connected to the motor.

Almost instantly, the sparking turret powered to life. Meanwhile, Alpha had finished setting up the traps and destroying the Health Station. He returned to where we were and took up position back behind the corpse in the corner so he could provide support with his Rivet Gun once the Splicer got through our initial perimeter.

Meanwhile, I would remain by Eleanor's side as she gathered from the "angel". I kneeled down to allow my charge to safely dismount. Giggling, she lowered herself to the ground. When I sensed that she had successfully dismounted, I returned to standing upright. I turned and looked down to see her pointing at the corpse with a happy smile like she had before. Meanwhile, she remarked with a playful tone, "Who watches over sleeping angels? I do, I do."

As she began to gather, my built-in radio activated. Sofia addressed me with her usual formal manner that had a hint of sympathetic understanding, "I do not hate you Delta…indeed, I care for you with equal measure to any other sentient creature, but I cannot sacrifice a thousand of my children for one rebellious son."

Maddening, burning rage erupted inside of me as my Protector Instincts rushed full force into my mind. Losing myself to my programming, I let out an ear-shattering guttural roar that vibrated the air of the decrepit amusement park to warn everyone that I was now in "protector" mode. Meanwhile, hellish red light began to emit from my eye that was so threatening in its color that even another Big Daddy would have been intimidated.

There was a part of my mind that even I was afraid of. It was the monster that I had become: Subject Delta. It almost felt like I had a Dr. Jackal and Mister Hyde personality complex. One side of me was gentle and compassionate. The other, however, was a homicidal monster that felt nothing except the desire to protect my beautiful Eleanor. I was no longer a man in those situations. I was an armored behemoth that killed anything or anyone that so much as looked at my daughter the wrong way.

Meanwhile, I heard the Splicers descending upon us. They attacked the entrance that we had used ourselves moments prior first. The sound of Trap Rivets firing and bodies hitting the hard floor filled the air. Alpha had placed them so that they fired directly into the Splicers' heads. However, this time, Sofia had put more pressure on the resident Splicers and so they were attacking in increased numbers. Within seconds, they had compromised our first layer of defenses.

The sentry turret chirped with a strange mechanical bell sound as it began to fire at the incoming Splicers. However, it could only track one target at a time. As it fired upon a Splicer that had taken cover behind the outer wall, two other Splicers left their comrade to his fate while they went to rush at my charge. Despite the rage pulsing through me, I smirked beneath my face. It amused me how Sofia believed that she had "unified" the remaining population of Rapture. You can say whatever you want to but at the end of the day, a drug addict is a drug addict.

The first Splicer, a male Leadhead wielding a haphazardly repaired revolver, rushed towards Eleanor. Growling, I electrocuted him with a blast of Electro Bolt and then quickly followed up with a swing of my drill. Giving off a pathetic whimper, the disfigured man crumpled to the ground.

My victory was short-lived as the second Splicer, a female Thuggish Splicer wielding a golf club, tried to run around me to get to Eleanor. I twisted to the left and grabbed her around her thin, scrawny neck with my massive gauntlet-encased left hand. With more Splicers pouring into the room, I unceremoniously moved my hand up the side of her skull and then crushed her head against the nearby wall.

Small caliber rounds suddenly impacted my frame but failed to penetrate my chest plate. Roaring in fury, I wheeled around to face the original entrance to find a security guard wielding a revolver. As he took cover behind the outer wall, a guard wielding a baton ran at me. As he tried to swing his baton at me, I thrust my drill's bloodied tip into the center of his face. Skull and brain matter flew out of the corpse's compromised skull.

Using Telekinesis, I levitated the corpse into the air and then propelled it straight at the other guard as he emerged from cover. He cried out in shock as the body slammed into him. The weight of his former comrade sent him collapsing to the floor. Another female Thuggish Splicer ran at me from my right. Swinging my drill from left to right, I struck her in the side of her head with the grooved side of my heavy industrial drill. Though not as sharp as the tip, the grooves protruding from the shaft of the drill bit were still sharp enough to slice open the side of her face and the force of my swing combined with the incredible weight of the drill succeeded in cracking the underlining bone.

However, to my horror, the deranged woman tumbled to ground inches to the left of Eleanor. I went to protect her, but, to my amazement, she withdrew the needle of her "toy" from the corpse and then stabbed the woman in her head before she could react. Then, without missing a beat, the controlled Little Sister continued to gather the ADAM from the corpse. I joked darkly, "Not tonight ladies and gentlemen!" Alpha laughed in response with his repeated grunts and Eleanor giggled as she continued to gather.

Seeing the guard starting to get to his feet, I levitated the pipe wrench from the side of the corpse and sent it flying into his head. The wrench struck the Splicer's head with a sick wet thud and he collapsed back onto the ground. A final Splicer tried to rush across the room but was quickly shredded by the 30-06 rounds of the M1919.

I heard the Trap Rivets by the other entrance fire as the new wave of incoming Splicers attempted to assault the other entrance. I had just twisted around to face towards it when the barrel, Alpha must have placed it just behind the entrance with a single Trap Rivet imbedded into it facing the open pathway, exploded. Letting Alpha and the machine gun handle the incoming Splicers, I remained by Eleanor just in case a Splicer managed to get through the withering fire of my ally and the turret.

At least six Splicers, mostly Leadhead security guards, tried to force their way to Eleanor but Alpha's lethal marksmanship and the turret's steady spray of rounds quickly cut them down within half a minute of their arrival. As the last Splicer fell to the floor, Eleanor stood as she chirped happily, "Daddy, I'm ready."

My Protector Instincts returned to the back of my mind and my eye returned to emitting golden yellow light. I looked down at her just in time to see her place the end of her needle into my right thigh and inject ADAM into my body. Strength flooded my system as the genetic substance flowed through my body. It would be so easy to become addicted to the feeling of fresh ADAM entering your body. However, as I merely needed ADAM as food, I was immune to the addictive properties of the corrupting substance. It would be like someone becoming addicted to apples. I could sense that I almost had enough to splice Incinerate! into my body. I had to deal with Little Sister herself to get the rest.

Sure enough, as Eleanor climbed back onto her throne on my back, Sinclair addressed me through my radio, "All right chief, we've almost got enough ADAM now. To get the rest, you'll have to take care o' that Little Sister. There should one of the air vents that they favor in the workshop. Bring her down there."

After scavenging the bodies, which resulted in twenty dollars for both of us, we began to make our way to the workshop. Around the corner from the room that we had been in, we came upon a female Leadhead Splicer in tattered formal attire and with a bunny mask covering her face. She was painting on the wall with a paint brush as if she was in a trance. So oblivious was the Splicer that the presence of two Big Daddies failed to register with her. Before she knew what was happening, Alpha terminated her with a single headshot.

As we passed by her, I glanced at the wall and saw that she had written the message, "WE WILL BE REBORN" in white house paint on the wall. I pitied the woman for a moment. Perhaps, beneath that unbreakable homicidal desperation, the Splicers had grown tired of the miserable slog of daily survival. Maybe that was why they listened to Sofia: they just wanted it all to stop. Who could blame them for wanting some nice words and an occasionally warm meal?

As we passed another Ryan automaton, I asked Alpha, "Do you ever miss?"

He grunted back, "Sometimes, sir. After a while, it feels like breathing…don't really have to think about it."

I paused as I noticed that this was the spot that I had seen the Little Sister. I recognized the corpse back behind the automaton to the right. Glancing towards the wall where I had looked out at the little girl, I was somewhat unnerved to see that someone had drawn the curtain shut. However, noticing that I was unnerved, Alpha explained, "That was me, sir. I was working on my Rivet Gun and I did not want a random Splicer to see me."

Immense relief filled me as well as slight embarrassment that such a minor thing had gotten to me. I heard Eleanor giggle quietly. In response, I let out a curt grunt. She replied, "The man on the moon is a girl, Daddy." I mentally sighed and hoped that Eleanor had grown out of the habit of talking like a Little Sister. Unlike our grunts and calls, which did have meaning, our charges' rants were sometimes actually unintelligent nonsense caused by the slug inside of them. Such statements made as little sense to us as it did to the casual observer.

Around the corner from the automaton, we came to the second scare. A derailed car blocked our path so we had to wait for the scene to play out so we could move through the set in order to continue on towards the workshop. The scene was a mock-up of a science lab. There, in the center, was a scientist working at his station. A light illuminated him from above as Ryan preached, "On the surface, a scientist invests the power of his mind into a single, miraculous idea…" At that moment, the automaton's arms raised up over his head to imitate an individual celebrating his triumph. Meanwhile, the platform that the machine was mounted to began to rise up into the air.

"…and naturally begins to rise above his fellows. But the parasites say _NO!_" At that moment, a large hand of "big government" lowered down from the ceiling above the scientist automaton. Red light bathed the area as the hand began to "push" the scientist back down as he lowered his arms down to his sides to imitate disappoint and heartbreak. Ryan continued, "Discovery must be regulated! It must be controlled! And finally, surrendered!"

When the scene had played out, Eleanor asked, "Daddy…"

I groaned before I explained, "Scientific discovery has a way of…backfiring…if not handled correctly."

She asked with a timid voice, "Like _the _bomb?"

I replied, "Yeah, kid…like the bomb. Sometimes…just because you can doesn't mean that you should. Remember that, Eleanor."

After moving through the second scare, we soon came to the third. This one was about censorship. However, as our path was clear and none of us really cared about such things, we pressed on rather than observing it. Finally, as we turned another corner and approached a third Ryan automaton, I saw the sign that indicated that we had reached the workshop.

Upon seeing the sign, Eleanor remarked with a yawn, "Yay…hidey hole." I smiled slightly beneath my armored, emotionless face.

As I crossed the threshold of the entrance to the workshop, my radio activated. Sinclair addressed me, "Now Tenenbaum would have you turn that Sister human again. You'll get just enough ADAM for our purposes, an' the girls'll likely try to repay you somehow. But Rapture's a high-stakes town, son – an' she's a jackpot. You'll harvest more ADAM than the price of one plasmid…so the rest is gravy. Think about it…down here, it's your survival or her's."

Having heard everything that he had said, Eleanor asked with a frightened tone, "D-Daddy? I-I've b-been good haven't I?"

I noticed that the edge to the girl's voice was gone and realized that it was the Little Sister, not Eleanor, that had addressed me with such a frightened tone. My heart went out to the little girl that had willingly gone along with this bizarre arrangement of being my real Little Sister's "vessel" so that we could spend this time together. She was so innocent, trusting, and naïve that it had never crossed her warped little mind that her "big sister"Eleanor, and Mister Bubbles would consider harming her.

Seconds later, Eleanor's personality returned to the Little Sister as she said with her robotic voice, "Father, what you said before…"

I interrupted, "Just because you can doesn't mean that you should, Eleanor. I shall rescue them all."

She asked, "Because you are a protector or because of morality?"

I replied, "Neither. Some things should not need a reason to justify them."

She remarked, "I don't understand."

I assured her, "You will in time, my daughter." By then, we had reached the lower level of the workshop. Much to my displeasure, the majority of the floor was flooded and we were forced to endure the ankle-high frigid water to reach the Little Sister Vent on the other end of the "C" shaped path. As we reached a Vita-Chamber in the center part of the "C", luckily, we found dry ground.

Beyond the chamber, I saw the vent. It had chalk drawings of smiling green stars and a doddle of a gathering tool around it. Meanwhile, I saw a plush doll down by the base of it along with a First Aid Kit. Before, this would have been the point where I assisted my Eleanor in getting to the hole so she could return to where her other sisters went to sleep. Though near the end, she refused to return to the vent and insisted upon staying with me instead.

It put me in an awkward position but I quickly began to enjoy having her sleeping form nuzzled against my chest as we both rested in whatever temporary shelter I had found. No one in their right mind would disturb a Big Daddy that was protecting a sleeping Little Sister so there was never any problems. My captors had removed my ability and need to sleep so I spent my time thinking about various things as well as tending to my drill. How Eleanor found my armored chest comfortable enough to sleep against, I did not know.

Naturally, we had to go to where they forced her to regurgitate the ADAM that we had gathered every so often so that they did not get suspicious. As a Little Sister, Eleanor was supposed to not be able to remember anything about who she was or even really be aware of what was happening around her. If they had found out that she was still aware of who she was, beyond her name of course, they would have deemed her a "failure" and disposed of both of us. It was our little secret that we both kept from everyone else.

As I reached the vent, my charged yawned, "Hidey hole…" Gently, I removed her from her throne on my back with my left hand. Meanwhile, I also pointed my drill to the left. Using the section of my right arm just before my elbow as a seat for her posterior, I held the little girl out in front of me. Her angelic marble-like face held a goofy expression as she tried to understand what I was doing as she also fought to stay awake.

What the majority of Rapture did not know was that the condition was not permanent or incurable. The sea slug inside of them was the cause of their condition, at least physically. The brainwashing did the rest. Tenenbaum had developed a Plasmid that killed the sea slug inside of them without hurting them during my time. While she had been tinkering with my genes, she had given me the ability so I simply had it as a "natural" ability without the need of an injected Plasmid.

Focusing, I willed the ability to activate. A bright white light began to emit out the palm of my ported left hand. Slowly, I lowered the palm of my left hand onto the top of her dirty head. As my hand made contact with her, a bright flash of light overwhelmed my vision. As it did, I felt the ADAM in her body flow into me as the slug was killed.

When my vision returned, I saw the confused, but happy little brunette girl look up at me with normal eyes that were surrounded by dark rings from the ordeal that she had endured for however long it had been since her forced conversion into a Little Sister. She began to clasp her hands together as she audibly thanked me for "rescuing" her. However, my radio activated and Sinclair's voice prevented me from hearing her as he said, "Well, our tin man had a heart all along. Personally, I call that a liability - but you have enough ADAM now…barely. Head to the Hall of the Future an' splice up with Incinerate."

Meanwhile, I had been helping the little girl reach the hole of the vent. She disappeared as she retreated into the vent network and, hopefully, began to make her way to a safe house set up by Tenenbaum or, perhaps, Eleanor. I hoped for the latter because the little girl had the baseball that Eleanor wanted to use to build a new Big Daddy doll.

The feeling of bliss entered my mind and I eagerly submitted to my beautiful master. She addressed me, "I hope we get to play again soon, Father. Don't worry, I have made arrangements with Tenenbaum. The girls will be looked after."

I asked her with my former life's gruff voice, "You knew that I would save them before you revived me didn't you, Eleanor?"

She replied with her hypnotic voice, "Of course, Topside. I know the kind of man that you are. When we get to the surface…we can have our own little girl."

I could have sworn that I felt a bead of sweat trickle down the right side of my face as she revealed her desire to have a child with me. I scolded her, "Young lady, you are too young to be thinking like that. Also, that is a very inappropriate thing to say to your Father."

Personally, I was not sure if I was even still physically capable of fathering a child because I had never been brave enough to examine that particular area of my body after my conversion into an Alpha Series Big Daddy to see if everything was still intact. Considering that I no longer felt the urge to urinate, I did not desire to know what else was different. I still thought of myself as a man and I really wanted to be able to continue thinking that I was one. I guess no matter how old a man was, some things about his mindset never changed.

Eleanor huffed before she replied with a disturbingly calm voice, "Oh Topside…resisting me only makes it more enjoyable…for me, that is. You forget…you are my protector…I can make you do whatever I want you to do." Then, she finished with a cheerful tone, "Anyway, go splice Incinerate, Father. The surface won't wait forever."

The feeling left my mind and I found myself back in the lower level of the workshop. I turned to look at my brother, who seemed to be exiting his own trance from communicating with Emily. He grunted, "They grow up so fast, huh, sir?"

I replied, "Yeah…let's get to the Hall of the Future and get the hell out of here."

He said, "Right behind you, brother." Together, we began to make our way out of the lower level and back to the main level of the workshop.


	8. Chapter 8: A man with no face

Ch. 8: A man with no face

A.N.:

Damn you college!

Sorry everyone. Forgive the long wait. Rest assured, I am working on my stories. I will finish this and the others. Have faith :)

Anyway, I hope the wait was worth it.

Read and review if you want.

* * *

As we made our way up the staircase that had streams of water flowing down its rubble-strewn steps, my honed senses detected the faintest traces of movement in the workshop above. I caught a faint scent of aged leather and corroding metal that was mixed with the once sweet aroma of a Little Sister that had turned bitter sweet. There was no mistaking that smell: a Big Sister. Sorrow flooded me as I remembered the one that I had unintentionally pursued earlier.

The city had gone and turned those sweet, innocent little girls into monsters. Yes, the cursed slugs inside of them made them look otherworldly but it was the cruelty of Suchong that conditioned them into blood-drinking gathers. However, any fool that bothered to take half a second to observe them could tell that they were still children. What kind of hell in their own minds could have turned them into these feral creatures?

The scent faded until it was gone. She must have retreated to continue keeping tabs on us for Sofia from a distance. Her presence was replaced by something even more mentally unbalanced. I could hear them scurrying about like rats in a maze as they set about getting ready to pounce on us like we were hapless prey that had been boxed into a corner. I growled slightly in irritation. Why would these fools not take a hint? We may not have been as physically imposing as the tin men but we were still Big Daddies.

As we neared the top of the staircase, I became aware of music being played from some source inside the workshop. "_It's the dawn of a new day!_" Upon reaching the landing, I saw a Splicer retreat to the far end of the area as she dragged her golf club's metal tip along the ground, giving off sparks as she did. Through the sheet of reinforced safety glass, I observed the barrel of a Thompson sticking up from behind the long worktable in the next area of the workshop. Along the top of the table in a line were a row of faded, weathered heads for the park's automatons and I noticed that one of them seemed a little too lifelike. I mentally sighed once again.

Taking point, I entered the workshop with Alpha following behind me far enough to be able to aim around me. As I did, the male security guard Leadhead Splicer wielding the Thompson stood up from where he had been crouching behind the worktable. Knowing better than to allow the deranged former park employee to fire his modified Thompson at me from such short range, where only the most incompetent individual could fail to score critical hits on the seven foot tall monster of metal and canvas stomping towards him, I willed a blast of Electro Bolt from my ported left hand into the man.

The electrical discharge left him sputtering convoluted profanities as he convulsed in agony. Capitalizing on his temporary vulnerability, I rushed forward and then thrust my industrial-grade mining drill's tip straight into the center of the Splicer's head. The sound of cracking bone filled the air as my blow easily compromised the man's skull. However, the man's body had no sooner crumpled to the ground in a heap before multiple small caliber rounds impacted my armored from.

I growled as one of the rounds scored a hit on the lightly armored canvas area beneath the armor plate of my chest and penetrated my hide to inflict internal damage. Luckily, the only vital organs located outside my area of protection were of my digestive track and I no longer needed them any more than I had needed my appendix when I was still a true human. The red liquid from the tank on my back would ensure that there was no internal hemorrhaging or bacterial poisoning of the surrounding tissue that would send me into shock.

Two revolver-wielding Leadhead Splicers rushed into the room. A third Splicer, the golf club-wielding former aristocratic woman that I had seen earlier, followed close behind them as she screamed, "Ridiculous!" Meanwhile, the music continued to play as if to add a rather unnerving aspect to this encounter with the denizens of Rapture. "_Here we come one and all! There can be no resisting…_" I revved my drill and thrust its whirling bit into the unarmored and disfigured chest of the nearest Leadhead Splicer as she attempted to pistol whip me with the cracked grip of her revolver.

She screamed in pure misery as my weaponized mining tool made short work of her torso. After powering down my drill, I flung the corpse into the second Leadhead Splicer. Meanwhile, Alpha had swiftly neutralized the Thuggish Splicer with two rivets to the woman's throat and then to the center of her face. "_It's the dawn of a new day!_" I flattened the skull of the downed Splicer with the bottom of my weighted right foot.

From the far end of the next room, two final Leadhead Splicers wielding Thompsons began to open up on us. As the storm of hot lead whizzed past my head, I forced my will into one of the Splicer corpses. As a miasma surrounded my gauntlet-encased left hand, I levitated the body into the air. Turning to face the two Splicers, I used the body as a shield momentarily before launching it at them.

The corpse hit home around their legs. As the two individuals collapsed face-first onto the hard floor, I charged towards them with my drill poised to deliver the final blow. The heavy weight of my diving boots cracked the floor beneath me as I moved with a speed that the lumbering tin men could only dream of achieving. They never had a chance. Having dealt with the Splicers, we both exited the workshop.

With the amount of fresh ADAM inside of my body, I would finally be able to purchase Incinerate. We needed to find a way out of the ride and back to the main area of the park. There, it would be a short trip to the Hall of the Future and its Gather's Garden Vending Machine. Obviously, we could have simply gone back to the entrance that we had used to enter the ride. My instincts warned me against that, however.

With that Big Sister now stalking us from the shadows, it was wiser to continue moving forward because, as a general rule, a stalking predator would opt to follow her target rather than to risk incorrectly predicting its path and thus losing the target. We were cat and mouse now. Question was: who was the cat and who was the mouse?

This whole situation was disgusting. Sofia had many things to answer for but the Big Sisters were number two on that list. Their conditioning had made them mentally fragile but it was the lack of a strong parental figure that had likely sent them over the edge until these broken creatures were all that were left of the original Little Sisters. The ones that had been bonded to the Tin Men were likely cast aside by their former guardians as they reached adolescence because the new hormones released during puberty had altered their chemical pheromone signature. The Tin Men responded only to the pheromone signature of Little Sisters.

It had not been personal. The Mass Production Models were essentially machines and the machines had failed to recognize the crying, confused teenagers as the little girls that they had once protected with their lives. The already fragile psyches of the blossoming teenage girls, compounded by the fact that their conditioning made them unable to understand what was happening to their bodies, was broken when "Mr. Bubbles" heartlessly pushed them aside, or worse, as they tried to interact with the lumbering giants as they had when they were little girls.

All they needed was a protector to hold them and tell them that what was happening to them was natural and that there was nothing to be afraid of. Knowing Sofia, the poor girls had probably been locked up like animals and made to feel like they were freaks. I felt an intense stab of fury enter my mind. How dare the city treat these girls like this?! They were the closest thing to royalty in this godforsaken place.

I could only imagine the pain that it would cause them to fight us. In their warped minds, we were probably still father figures to them. Not wanting to waste time, we continued past the third "scare", a scene with two parents having their child taken away by the hand of "big government" as they all watched television, while it played out. With the main path blocked by rubble, we had to go through the workshop just beyond the third "scare".

Upon entering the room, I saw a male Splicer attempting to vandalize a Power to the People machine that was against the far wall opposite the entrance. To my immediate left was a wooden shelf. A rather large circular flood lamp with a metal protective grate over it was mounted into the center of the ceiling. A worktable was located near the left wall. Beyond it, I saw the path that led to the next room.

I mentally sighed once again as I saw that the entire floor of the section of the room, including the rubble-strewn side room off to the right, was flooded. As a result, the Splicer was standing in ankle-high water. Protected by the concrete landing that I was standing on, I willed a blast of Electro Bolt into the water.

The man screamed in agony as blue electrical arcs danced around his body for a moment before he collapsed to the floor. I hesitated for a moment as I looked at the water before I forced myself onward. Doing my best to ignore the icy sting of the Atlantic, I pondered my next attachment to my drill. I had increased the damage capability of my drill to its mechanically maximum threshold. Unfortunately, the increased torque had increased my fuel consumption.

Thinking back to the gun mounts on the _Fletcher-class_ destroyer that I had served on during the war, I remembered that we had encountered similar issues with the rotational wear on them. The mounts themselves were perfectly fine but the increased armor and weight of the guns following an upgrade while the ship had been dry-docked had caused more friction and, thus, an increase in wear. Perhaps, if I installed a lubrication system that would douse the section where the bit met the mount whenever I revved up the drill, it would offset the increase in torque by reducing the friction.

What would be the lubricant? It could not be anything petroleum based because the whirling bit and fossil fuel powered motor occasionally caused excessive heat. It would have to be synthetic and polymer-based to prevent turning my arm into a torch. Where the hell was I going to find something like that around this dump? For that matter, the design that I had in my head would require another tank on my person to work. I could not compromise my mobility; mobility was crucial for my kind to survive.

Was I over-thinking the idea? How did a city of geniuses end up having armored champions that were someone like me? Perhaps, I could use the same fuel that powered the motor. That would work as it neither required a new tank nor a specialized design. However, such a lubrication system would defeat its own purpose: reducing the fuel consumption of the drill. Moreover, I would still need a new fluid to dilute the fuel to prevent it from igniting if the drill bit became too hot.

Looking down at the icy sea water, I suddenly had an inspiration: water. My drill was a left-over tool from Rapture's construction that had been repurposed as a weapon. The metal was an alloy that allowed the drill to be exposed to sea water for extended periods of time. Given the deteriorated state of the city, I had little doubt that sea water was in plentiful supply. The only concern was that the mounts themselves, the ones that allowed me to attach or remove the drill over my right hand, were jerry-rigged by the engineers at Fontaine Futuristics during my construction and were not part of the original tool. The sea water could pool in the gaps between the mounts and could potentially fused them together, thus rendering it impossible for me to remove my drill from over my hand, if it reacted to the blood that would inevitably cover my drill.

However, seeing no other alternative that I could use in the short amount of time that I had to reach Eleanor before our bond sent me into irreversible madness, I detached my drill from my right hand and then used the vending machine to rig a series of nozzles in a ring around the edge of the point where the bit met the mount. The drill already had cut notches for such a system, the issue had been what substance to use as a lubricant. Like a chainsaw, the drill had a small reserve tank located on the side for lubricant. Typically, mineral oil would, and should have, been used to lubricate the bit but as mineral oil was now all but gone in Rapture, I would have to modify the tank and lines to use the icy waters of the Atlantic. I smirked slightly as I realized that, if nothing else, the new layer of salt coating the bit would make my strikes even more painful for the fool that had dared to attack me. Even better, it would be a delayed agonizing sensation that would afflict my target should it retreat.

My modifications were crude but I succeeded in rigging the lubrication system. I remounted my drill over my right hand and then opened the small hatch for the reserve tank with my left hand. After moving away from the vending machine so that Alpha could modify his Rivet Gun, I bent down and scooped up some of the water that was flooding the room. When I had a full tank, I resealed the hatch with my left hand. I then stood up and looked over to my brother.

After attaching a pressure line with a gauge on it to his tool, he retrieved his Prototype Rivet Gun from the machine. I smirked as I saw that he had not only increased his weapon's clip size, before it resembled a cylindrical container but now it was rectangular in shape, but that he had also modified his weapon to recycle the heat from firing the projectiles back into the weapon chamber to superheat the remaining rivets, hence the new pressure hose that wrapped around the exterior of the tool with a pressure gauge sticking up so that the wielder could see it. With each successive shot, the projectiles would get hotter and hotter.

The barrel of the rivet gun and the rivets themselves were both made of high quality steel alloys that were extremely tolerant of high temperatures, far more than what typical steel was capable of withstanding. All the tools used to construct Rapture were extremely durable because they were building a city at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The Rivet Guns used by the Rosies were left-overs from the construction and the Prototype Rivet Guns were modified versions that had been repurposed as combat weapons.

I grunted, "Brilliant idea, brother. Subtle and brutal…I think that there is a sadistic side to you that you are keeping hidden from the rest of us."

He replied with a modest tone, "Survival of the most sadistic, sir. You taught us that. '_Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man how to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Give your enemy a taste of pain, he leaves you alone for a day. Teach your enemy to fear the pain, he leaves you alone for a lifetime_.'"

I smiled slightly beneath my face as I remembered demonstrating the concept of fear to my brothers over the course of three days in the Plasmid Theater in Fontaine Futuristics. The first day, I simply killed my opponents swiftly. The next day, I pointed out to my brothers, who would watch from backstage, how my new enemies did not fear me. During that match, I killed them all as slowly as possible to ensure that the others would hear their screams of agony. The next day, the new group of beggars, plasmid trial rejects, and criminals had to be forced onto the stage at gun point, conveniently out of sight of the crowd of course, and they cowered in the corners of the room literally paralyzed by their own fear of what I could do to them. It was brutal and disgusting, but so was our job. Those that would harm our daughters deserved no mercy from us.

As we continued on to the next room, I found a female Splicer dressed in tattered formal attire sitting in a peeling wooden chair in front of a wall safe. Upon noticing me, she jumped up, kicked the chair behind her, and yelled, "You can't take my furs! Never!" As she raised her golf club over her right shoulder, I revved up my drill. Sea water began to douse the whirling bit as the powerful motor roared. Ordinary mining drills had cause to fear the halite minerals in ocean water, but my drill had been purposely designed so simplistic that it was damn near indestructible.

As she jumped at me while swinging her melee weapon, I sent the whirling, razor sharp point of my drill straight into her right arm. In a matter of seconds, the surprised Thuggish Splicer's arm was ripped to shreds. Screaming and pressing the strings of bloodied flesh that were hanging from her now useless limb back against the remains of the arm with her left hand, she dropped her weapon and ran out of the room. I powered down my drill and stopped my brother as he attempted to pursue her.

He twisted his torso so that he was looking at me with his golden yellow segmented eye. I explained with a series of grunts, "Let her go. She will tell the rest of them about the pain we can cause."

He replied, "Yes, sir." After ripping the safe door off its hinges, I found that the Splicer's "furs" were one hundred dollars, some trap rivets, and two strange light bulb-looking objects that I ignored. I gave Alpha fifty dollars and the trap rivets before we continued forward. Upon exiting the workshop, we turned the corner to find a large shipping crate blocking most of the path. A lit burn barrel was in front of it casting shadows against the already morbid surroundings. To the left, inside the small side slot in the wall, were two bed mattresses.

Going around the shipping crate through the side slot, I found that there were small shipping crates that had been stacked to create a makeshift defensive line. More or less kicking the crates out of my way, I cleared the path and continued forward. To the right just beyond the barrier was a shop façade with the name "Disease" above the door. Red light bathed the façade to draw the attention of the long gone amusement park customers. The ceiling beyond the façade had partially collapsed and we had to squeeze past the debris.

As we turned the corner, a male Leadhead Splicer yelled at us from behind yet another shipping crate that was in the center of the path. To the left, sea water was pouring into the area through a large circular grate that was against the wall. Mounted high up on the right wall was a security camera, its red beam illuminating the left wall as the device passively scanned the area. Beside the Splicer to the left was a red metal barrel.

Before we could engage the Splicer, he screamed, "Sorry, doc. Salvation ain't worth towin' it with no Alpha Daddy!" He took off down the path like hell on wheels. I smirked at the sight. They were finally starting to remember their place. I let out a loud guttural roar after the fleeing Splicer, which succeeded in causing the panicked Splicer to cry out in terror and run even faster.

Laughing with repeated grunts, we continued forward, making sure to avoid the security camera's search beam. Around the next corner, we were met by the sight of a heavily vandalized Ryan automaton. The machine was ripped apart and dangling from the ceiling above the desk by a metal cable as if it had been "hanged". On the wall behind the desk, in white house paint, was the message, "Reject the tyranny of the Self." Below it was the message, "Rapture failed. We Will Not." On the wall to the left of the destroyed automaton were the messages, "Lamb will Lead The Way," and "The end of RYAN is the end of the SELF."

My brother let out a long grunt that sounded like a sigh. I waited patiently. After a moment, he said, "Lamb…came out the woodwork about two years after the New Year's Eve Riots. Ryan was killed by that fool that had infiltrated his clubhouse…Fontaine was killed by some Rosie Tin Daddy a few hours later up near Point Prometheus…there was no one left to run the city. It was awful, sir. I had to keep us in the shadows to protect Emily. The majority of the Little Sisters were suddenly gone for some reason. The few that were left…it was a nightmare…slaughter…they didn't have a chance."

He paused for a moment and then continued, "We both nearly starved to death so many times that I lost count…it just wasn't safe for her to gather…damned Splicers had turned corpses into traps. Ended up having to grab corpses and then run off to a secluded safehouse used by Fontaine's smugglers before the Civil War. I had found it and fixed the lockdown mechanism…the only way…the Splicers ran in huge packs like wolves...they would rush the Tin Men like hyena attacking an elephant. Worse, they would seal off the vent network but keep one open. Then, they would divert the scalding steam from the geothermic generators into the networks and drive the girls from the vent and pounce on them. I kept Emily with me after we saw them doing that. I wanted to help her sisters but I would have put Emily in danger so…I…made a choice…the Little Ones that survived long enough for Lamb to take control of the city weren't right in the head…how could they have been?"

I listened in silence as he continued, "Say what you want about Sofia, sir, but she did save Rapture from itself…not that it deserved to be saved. I nearly had a submersible fixed up when she set up that blasted torpedo system to prevent anyone from coming or going. By then, Emily was beginning to go through puberty. I assured her that nothing was wrong with her and that she wasn't a freak. She was just growing into an adult. Then…one day…Lamb's Splicers and Big Daddies assaulted the safehouse. I don't know how they found us. I fought back…so did Emily…but…there were too many…took her from me."

He paused for a moment, the pain clearly evident in his posture and tone, before he continued, "When I regained consciousness, I was in a holding cell up in Persephone. I broke out but it was too late. When I found Emily, she was a Big Sister…the first one. By then though, Lamb had nearly a dozen. That bitch Sofia ordered them to kill me. I don't know how, but I managed to escape and then found a way back into Rapture. I fought Lamb for years from the shadows…killing her followers…hacking security cameras…turrets…only so much I could do alone though."

The silence was nearly unbearable but I wanted him to get it off his chest so I continued to listen. Absentmindedly examining his Prototype Rivet Gun, he continued, "The fucking Tin Daddies were her slaves…she sent them after me…for nearly a year, they tried to hunt me down like a rat before they were given new Little Sisters to protect…plus I had to look out for the Big Sisters since Lamb had ordered them to kill me on sight. Emily would sneak rations of ADAM to me but I never saw her…just the teddy bears with the little boxes…she would leave notes with the vials of ADAM that said that she still thought of me as her knight and wanted to be with me again. It was her own ADAM…so our bond remained intact…but only just barely…they nearly severed it when they turned her into a Big Sister. Without my Protector Instincts, I could not fight my back to Persephone…the Fontaine building that you have to go through is the home of madmen…tried several times but never could get through it."

He finished, "A few months ago, Tenenbaum returned to the city. Found me one day…explained that she needed my help…explained that she and Eleanor could bring you back…all they needed was ADAM…lots of it…that and your body. I knew where your body was…I found it and informed the remaining Alpha Series that you were gone…those of us that had survived the riots…we created a kind of memorial…I told Tenenbaum where it was and started gathering ADAM with a Little Sister that Tenenbaum had reconditioned to see me as her father."

Knowing the rest of the story, I assured him, "We'll get them back…I promise." I turned to continue forward but then paused. I turned back to look at him and then said, "Thank you for that…I'm sorry that you and Emily went through that alone."

He laughed slightly before he replied, "No problem, sir. I am just glad that it worked. Now, we can put the bitch back in her straight jacket and let Emily and Eleanor see the Sun."

I smirked beneath my face before I said, "Come on, they're waiting for us." We continued onward. Past the vandalized Ryan automaton, we finally came to the end of the ride where the mockup of the Lighthouse was located. Two ride cars blocked the exit so we had to go through the employee access to the left of the Lighthouse. The door was long gone so we proceeded through the open passageway as we ignored the two crying Splicers that had fled from us as they cowered in the far corner. Two filing cabinets were against the left wall where they had fallen on top of each other. Turning right, we made our way through the winding side route and eventually came to a lever switch.

I could see the loading/unloading station for the ride cars below us through decorative glass panels. With the exit sealed, I lowered the master override lever that would open all of the remaining security gates. The automatic lockdown mechanism of the park must have sealed the bulkheads when the power had been cut years prior. As the sound of opening security bulkheads rumbled throughout the park, we exited the employee access area and finally found ourselves back at the entrance to the ride.

However, as we arrived at the entrance, I heard a man yell, "Come on choppers! Tear this place down!" It was the last of Sofia's Hit Squad. A female Leadhead Splicer appeared around the first corpse that we had gathered from. Before she could fire her modified submachine gun, my brother dropped her with a headshot. Meanwhile, a male Thuggish Splicer rushed through the entrance to the park. I caught his right wrist as he tried to swing his pipe wrench at me. Before he could react, I swung my drill's razor sharp point into his head. Dropping the bloodied mass onto a heap on the floor, I scanned the area for the rest of the assassins. However, to my surprise, only one final Leadhead Splicer appeared before us. Quickly, my brother neutralized her as well.

The entire main building was eerily quiet as we made our way upstairs. I could hear our heavy bootfalls echoing throughout the entire park, yet no movement replied back. Had all the Splicers fled? Granted, there were not that many Splicers within the park's walls to begin with but I had never encountered a section of Rapture this empty and hollow. Or, as I began to suspect, had the inhabitants fled from the park like rats from a sinking ship because they knew that the Big Sister was about to make her move?

We reached the second floor and made it to the entrance to the Hall of the Future before I finally heard a Splicer. As the decorative watertight bulkhead to the hall raised up to allow us to access the section beyond, I heard a man complain, "Rusted pile of junk! You broke it didn't you Edna?" The voice was coming from up ahead. With my drill at the ready and with blue electrical arcs dancing around my ported left hand, I pushed onward.

Upon reaching the top of the second flight of stairs, I heard a woman reply to the man, "Me? You're mean Roger! It was probably your fat hands that loused it up!"

The second bulkhead opened to reveal two Splicers in the room beyond. The man was attempting to repair a malfunctioning sentry turret while the woman was pacing around him with a revolver held in her right hand. Along the top of the walls on either side of them were television monitors that advertised various plasmids with the cartoon descriptions of them. I could not help but smile slightly as the man retorted, "Typical broad! Don't complain about things that you don't know nothing about!"

At times, it seemed like, despite their horrible mutations and mental instability, the Splicers could yet be saved from themselves. Truly, they often displayed signs of humanity in both their dialogue and actions. I had even seen what one might risk to suggest being pleas for help. That within itself suggested that there was still something to save in their ADAM ravaged shells. They were unstable, but they were still sane enough to know that they were not sane. As I had begun to suspect, the reason why the remaining inhabitants followed Lamb with cult-like fanaticism was that, in her, they saw a chance to be, as they put it: reborn.

Charging forward, I willed a blast of Electro Bolt in the woman. With his guard temporarily immobilized, I took aim at the man. As he reached for his Thompson, which was on the floor next to him along with a red toolbox, I thrust my drill's point straight into the side of his head. Brain matter and bits of bone flew out of his compromised skull as his body collapsed into a heap on top of the toolbox and weapon. Meanwhile, my brother had neutralized the female Splicer.

I heard a clicking noise and realized that the turret was actually functional except that the ammunition belt was jammed inside the housing. The result was an almost comical sight of a turret swiveling around to aim at me but only emitting a clicking sound as it attempted to fire its rounds at me. Leaving the turret, we continued towards the vending machine, which I could see on the other side of a large glass window in the left corner. Ahead of us, I saw what remained of the wall-sized advertisement for plasmids. Several sections of the "father's" left arm were burned, a section around the little girl's face looked like it had been ripped away from the wall, and near the bottom of the advertisement around the phrase "The Wondrous World of Rapture" were several more sections that had been burned.

As we proceeded passed the bulkhead to the right of the advertisement, we were met by the sight of a Big Sister glaring at us just outside the nearby glass panels as she was perched on a rocky outcropping. She continued to glare at us with her hellish red circular eye for a moment before she suddenly jumped up, floated upwards a few feet, and then swiftly swam down out of sight. I was certain that that was not the same Big Sister that had been stalking us inside the park because I could sense her presence somewhere behind us.

How many Big Sisters did Sofia have keeping tabs on us? What was she waiting for? In our present state, we would be outmatched if we encountered several of the lithe protectors. We would only be getting stronger. Now was the time to eliminate us. Why was she hesitating? Did she hope that we would "see the error of our ways" and become loyal to the Family? She was in for a rude surprise if she did indeed hope for such a thing. Our only loyalty was too our bonded masters and to the Little Sisters.

As we rounded the corner, my built-in radio activated. Sofia, surprisingly, addressed both of us, "So…you two would drain the people of their life's blood? Rapture is a body Delta…Alpha. I am the voice…and Big Sister is the hand. When Rapture speaks of you - it says only this: Sleep now. Your day is done."

When my radio deactivated, I grunted in disgust, "Your day is done? The Alpha Series are NOT DONE! Not as long as I have something to say about it!" I felt my anger rising dangerously. Your day is done?! Who the hell did Sofia think she was?!

My brother grunted in approval, "Right on, sir! Let's go burn that woman's little clubhouse to the ground!"

Pressing on past the bust of Andrew Ryan and the automatons that were set up to mimic a party scene and a romantic evening, we finally came to the Gather's Garden Vending Machine. I placed my gauntlet-encased left hand inside the little slot of the machine. Moments later, a needle was injected into my hand so the machine could calculate how much fresh ADAM was inside my body and therefore what I could afford to splice. The needle retracted from my hand and I examined the illuminated selections that the machine had allotted me from the amount of freshly gathered ADAM.

I could choose between Incinerate!, Health Upgrade, and EVE Link. Using the metal tipped index finger of my left hand, I selected Incinerate. A loud metal clanging sound came from the machine before a glowing red container of Incinerate emerged from the vending slot. Using telekinesis and an empty hypo needle, I collected a sample of the plasmid and then injected it through the IV Port on my left arm. This time, I only felt a sense of mild discomfort for a few seconds before jets of fire emerged from my ported fingertips and palm. I noticed that the metal ports were also now glowing red hot from the flame that was emitting from them.

I smirked with satisfaction before willing the flames to die down. When they had, I returned to the selections and pressed the Health Upgrade option. The container that was vended was neither glowing red nor blue. Instead, it was eggshell white, meaning it was neither a plasmid nor a gene tonic. Unlike the other two product lines, the products like Health Upgrade did not destabilize one's genetic sequence if he or she overindulged in them. As long as I had the ADAM and the vending machines had the upgrades, I could increase my health indefinitely without suffering genetic damage.

Not wanting to use the rest of my ADAM on EVE Link, I opted to conserve what I had left to put towards further upgrades. I turned towards my brother and motioned questioningly at the Gather's Garden. He replied, "No thank you, sir. I'm alright for now." With Incinerate! finally spliced, I turned and headed back towards the train station to melt the ice.

As I left the vending machine, a man's recorded voice announced, "Congratulations on your recent purchase of the Incinerate Plasmid. Say, Tom here is enjoying a romantic evening with a gal. What could impress her more than lighting the fireplace with a snap of your fingers?" Having tested prototypes for Incinerate!, I was easily able to will a fireball directly into the logs in the fireplace. After I did, I growled in discomfort as my EVE Tank refilled my body's reserve. The nauseating sound of suction filled the air as the new glowing collection of EVE entered my body through the IV line running along the interior of my left arm.

As the sensation passed, I noticed that an oil slick at the base of the fireplace had been ignited by my genetic flames. The trail of fire continued up to engulf "Tom" and his "gal" where they were on the couch. As the flames destroyed the two automatons, Eleanor taunted me through our bond, "_Having trouble controlling your…ahem...fire, Topside? Did you get it all over the place you naughty boy?_"

I retorted, "_It's not my fault that whoever set up this thing used petroleum-soaked logs! By the way, highly inappropriate language young lady. Respect your elders._"

She asked smugly, "_What about Mother?_"

I replied, "_No, of course not. Sofia is a homicidal bitch._"

She faked shock as she asked, "_Did Papa just call Momma a bad word?_"

I retorted, "_Eleanor, your Mother has tried to kill me again several times in the past few hours…I'll call her whatever I want to._"

I could feel her smirk darkly before my master said, "_Yes…tried to kill you…but you are stronger than she could ever possibly imagine. You are the best mate a girl could want, Father._"

Before I could reply, her presence left my mind. I mentally sighed. Mate? I had to get Eleanor out of Rapture before it claimed even more of her sanity. I turned to leave. As I neared the party scene, alarm bells erupted inside my mind. There was one too many automatons. Facing the new addition to the scene, I growled threateningly. Meanwhile, the male voice said, "Oh! A party! But this party just hit the skids. Carl needs a light for his cigar and no one can help him."

The Thuggish Splicer, realizing that his cover had been blown, swung his pipe wrench at us as he panicked. Before he even reached us, I ignited him with my genetic flames. The smell of burning flesh, hair, and clothing filled the air as the Splicer ran around while the flames consumed him. As he ran, he made contact with the automatons in the scene and they too became engulfed by flames. Moments later, the human candle collapsed into a burning heap on the floor. Though the repugnant smell did not bother me as much as it would bother a normal person, I quickly made my way towards the exit. However, this time, as I neared the exit, I noticed the ice-blocked entrance to another room just to the right of it. I melted the obstructive ice and entered the water soaked room.

In the far right corner was a mockup of a kitchen with a house wife stereotype ejecting freezing mist from a tube inside her outstretched right hand. The advertisement in front of the kitchen indicated that it was intended to demonstrate the Winter Blast Plasmid. To the left against the wall, I noticed the second Gather's Garden Vending Machine. Not wanting to waste any more time should the Big Sister decide to make her move while she had us trapped in this wing of the park, I exited the room and then proceeded back into the room with the wall-sized advertisement and the sentry turret.

However, as we reached the advertisement, an ear-shattering screech shot through the air. In a progressing line, the television monitors exploded and the room noticeably darkened. I cringed beneath my copper face. She had cornered us and now she was calling us out. Alpha grunted, "Got your back, sir." We moved towards the main room in the park cautiously.

As we did, I desperately tried to think of a way to calm the aggressive former gathers. They were former Little Sisters; I did not want to hurt them. Perhaps, the same ability that allowed me to kill the sea slugs inside the younger ones would allow me to somehow calm the older ones. The slug had probably fused to the post-pubescent girl's digestive track by now so I could not kill the cursed creatures without killing the sister. From what I had seen the Big Sisters do so far, it would not surprise me if it was raw ADAM coursing through their bodies instead of blood. Perhaps, with the ability that I had, I could draw off the excessive amount of ADAM from their bodies and stabilize them.

It was a long shot but I had to try something to help them. However, Eleanor was the only thing that mattered. If it came down to the Big Sister or my beautiful master, then I would have no choice but to use lethal force. I informed my brother with a series of grunts, "I have an idea. If I can draw off the excessive ADAM in her body with the Little Sister Exorcism Plasmid, it might calm her enough to stop her from attacking us."

He replied, "How do you plan to get your hand on her bare skin without her disemboweling you?"

I explained with a sarcastic tone, "By asking nicely."

He groaned before he commented, "You can't save them all, sir."

He was not being pessimistic. Alpha was always more optimistic than I was. However, in this situation, I understood his desire for caution against far-fetched ideas. I assured him, "It is worth a try. Besides, we can always do what we do best if it does not work."

He finally replied in agreement, "Very well, sir. Let's give it a try."

Upon reaching the bottom of the flight of stairs before the bulkhead door that led out into the main area, a loud metal bang rocked the air. Sparks appeared around the edges of the bulkhead as I felt myself being drawn towards the door. As we reached it, it was ripped out of its housing in pieces to reveal the hostile Big Sister standing on top of the red bench seat in the center of the upper walkway. Using her powerful version of Telekinesis, the lithe armored young woman formed the pieces of the door into a ball above her for a moment before sending the pieces flying in all directions. Luckily, the pieces failed to hit either one of us.

She then screeched in primal fury before doing a backflip through the air. Upon landing on the far side of the walkway, she stood upright and glared at us for a moment. It was then that I first noticed the odd proportions of her body. Her legs were unusually gangly even for a young woman. They were so thin and long that she appeared to be having difficulty with standing correctly. Her knees were bent forward at an excessive angle as they appeared to struggle to support the rail thin sections on either side of them. I noticed the metal supports on either side of her legs like the ones that a hospital might give a patient suffering from a muscular disease.

Meanwhile, her arms were just as rail thin as she wielded her needle-like weapon mounted to her left arm and the harpoon bolt mounted to her right arm. Her posture was unusual in that she was hunched over to the point that her red porthole was nearly parallel with her spine even though the porthole was mounted in the center of her bulbous diving helmet. There was something else that struck me about the way she was orienting her head: it was cocked slightly.

I mentally created an image of the skinny girl beneath her armor. I cringed as I pictured the girl hunched forward, arms extended out from her sides that were bent at the elbows, her unnaturally long legs bent excessively at the knees, her neck bent back to the point that her line of sight was nearly parallel with the top of her spine, and her head cocked to one side. ADAM had done this to her mind and body. I had to help her!

The Big Sister cartwheeled to the left and then used her Telekinesis to gather various items from the room above her head in a ball. A piece of concrete, a wooden advertisement stand, and a pillow collected above her. Motioning with her arms, she sent the items flying towards us. However, using our own Telekinesis, we caught the items, except for the pillow which harmlessly bounced off Alpha's chest, and then sent them back at her. She easily dodged them by cartwheeling to the right.

When she landed on her feet, she quickly turned and ran up the side of the nearby column. As she reached the top of the column, she turned towards us and then propelled herself forward at great speed. She landed on her feet just before us and then tried to strike us with a powerful thrust of her needle-like weapon. However, we sidestepped her in opposite directions.

Seeing an opening now that she had her back turned to me, I swung my drill at her. She managed to turn at the last second and my strike only succeeded in breaking off the basket-like contraption that was mounted to her oxygen tank. Seeing the metal contraption hit the ground, she gave off a deafening shriek. My senses had been overwhelmed by her cry and thus I was unable to dodge her as threw herself into my chest at full force.

The momentum of the collision sent us both over the side of the walkway. I let out an agonized roar as I handed hard slightly on my right side. The enraged Big Sister landed on me and began to straddle my waist with her long, gangly legs while she forced me completely back onto my two tanks by placing her gloved hands on my shoulders. She looked down at me with her cocked head for a moment. I tried to push her off of me but she simply relocated her hands to pin my arms down up near the shoulders. She then lowered her head down until the surfaces of our glowing eyes were mere inches apart.

Her strength was staggering. It seemed impossible that such a skinny frame could possess such strength. Despite the thick material between the surfaces of our true bodies, I was able to feel her abdominal muscles tighten and untighten as she shifted her posture. How was she so strong? Even with ADAM, there had to be body structure to match the increase in strength. I had to remind myself that her aggressive response was active and was thus allowing her to access strength that she would not normally be able to access. Her aggressive response combined with the ADAM in her body had made her capable of overpowering an unprovoked Big Daddy.

Suddenly, she shrieked as the report from Alpha's Prototype Rivet Gun sounded through the cavernous area. I also heard a sick, wet pop and when she had retracted from my body and then turned around to look up at where my brother was above us on the walkway, I saw that her right knee had a smoking rivet imbedded in its kneecap. Red and green blood slowly trickled from around the edges of the rivet as she attempted to put weight on it only for the damaged joint to give out.

She had turned to look up at him just in time to be struck by his second shot. I saw the molten rivet imbed itself into her left elbow. The grown Little Sister left out an agonized cry as she attempted to bend her left arm. Going through the numerous steps that were required for me to stand, I reflected that we would need more than our standard tactics to win against a being as strong as her. I heard the sister let out a grunt of exertion and realized that she had jumped up to the second floor to attack my brother. I mentally cursed as I realized what I had to do. However, in doing so, would Eleanor forgive me?

My bonded charge spoke into my mind with a shocked tone, "_Father?_"

With guilt heavy in my mind, I replied, "_I'm sorry, kid. It's the only way. Please, I need you to say it._" I felt her hesitate as she feared what I would do to the sister. I reminded her, "_You can stop me from seriously hurting her. Eleanor, please…I need you to say it._"

Trusting my judgment, Eleanor granted my request as she screamed, "_Unzip 'em, Daddy!_"

The burning maddening fury of my Protector Instincts stormed full strength into my mind like hellfire. My segmented eye began to emit hellish red light as I let out a deafening guttural roar that dwarfed the one that I had let out after I had killed the Bouncer. My entire body vibrated as I continued to shake the area with my furious war cry. Freed from the constraints of my conscience once more, I began to laugh in repeated grunts as the wonderful feeling of homicidal rage consumed my rational thoughts. Then, I suddenly stopped in the middle of a laugh and focused on the little fool that was the reason for the monster Subject Delta being let out of his cage.

My brother had been sidestepping her attacks and withering away at the pest's weak points with his Rivet Gun. Singe marks on her leather hide indicated where the rivets had been so hot that they had burned the section of the brat's suit. Looking down at the tiled floor, I noticed a large chunk of concrete about the size of a basketball to my left. I bent down and casually picked up the two hundred pound plus piece of concrete with my gloved left hand.

Calmly playing with the object in my hand, I called out, "Alpha, lure her to the edge of the walkway. I've got something for her." Seconds later, my brother appeared as he baited the former Little Sister to show herself to me. The undisciplined girl immediately took the bait and exposed herself to me. I took aim and then threw the chunk of concrete at her. My aim was true and the sister was knocked off her feet as the object hit her square in the side of her bulbous head.

My brother looked at me, but I motioned that I would take care of her. Seeing the red light emitting from my eye, he lowered his weapon down to his side and then took a few steps back. He knew better than to argue when I was under the influence of my aggressive response. Folding my left arm and drill across my armored chest, I waited for the girl to get up.

As I had expected, she was slow in getting to her feet. Getting hit by boulder in the side of one's head tended to be disorientating. Seeing Alpha passively standing off to the side, she looked down at me. The fear in her posture was evident as she saw my hellish red eye. I challenged her in a series of grunts, "So, you fancy yourself a killer do you little girl? Alright…I can allot a few minutes for you to indulge your fantasy before I go on my way. Come now, sweetie. Let's see what you can do against ol' obsolete Delta."

She shrieked loudly to try to intimidate me before she jumped down to my floor. Immediately, she lowered herself down to the ground and then charged towards me like a Bouncer. I mentally sighed in disappointment as I remained stationary with my arm and drill folded across my chest. As she neared me, I extended my right foot forward slightly.

The Big Sister, completely oblivious of her surroundings, had failed to see the oil slick on the floor in front of me. The second that the charging young woman's armored feet made contact with the slick, they shot out from beneath her. Falling forward, the girl hit the floor and began to tumble towards me. Her tumbling was finally stopped by the bottom of my extended right boot. Casually returning my right foot back to its normal position, I roughly grabbed the mortified young girl by her head with my left hand and then lifted her up off the ground.

I held her there in front of me for a second before letting out a thunderous roar. Charging forward, I slammed the sister against the EL Ammo Bandito Vending Machine hard enough to send her through the device. Over the sound of various calibers of firearms clattering individually onto the floor from the destroyed machine, I heard the distinctive sound of several of her ribs breaking. I released my grip on her head and then retreated away a few steps.

The injured Big Sister fell out of the remains of the vending machine and collapsed onto the ground in front of it in a heap. Seconds later however, she forced herself to get to her feet. Growling, she swung her needle at me. Amused by her stubbornness, I roughly caught her needle by its shaft with my left hand and then began to savagely pummel her head with my drill.

On the fourth strike, the glass of her eye cracked. She tried to break free from my grip but her strength was no match for mine now that my aggressive response was allowing me to access one hundred percent of my muscular potential. On the tenth strike, a crack appeared in the metal skin of her head. The sister's right knee gave out and she collapsed onto it. Her left foot remained on the ground however.

With more room to charge my strike, I turned my entire torso back to the right and then let out a loud grunt of exertion as I brought it back to strike the brat at full force in the cracked section of her head. A loud metallic thud sounded through the park as my heavy industrial-grade drill split open her helmet. As the two halves of her diving helmet fell to floor on opposite sides of her shaking form, her face was revealed to the world.

My anger faltered as I saw the innocent, frightened appearance of her true face. Releasing my grip on her needle, I stepped back a few steps as I studied her. Without me holding her, she collapsed onto her right side. I did not know what to expect, but the sight before me certainly was not what I had imagined.

Like my beautiful Eleanor, she had frost white flawless skin, thin cheeks, and a small nose. Her unruly short raven hair was slick with sweat. She gazed up at me with her once glowing eyes that had returned to their natural color of white with blue irises. Her pupils were dilated and her thin pale lips were quivering as she continued to look at me. Just below her eyes were black rings as if she had not slept in several days.

The girl's horrible state doused the anger of my Protector Instincts. My rational thoughts returned and my eye returned to emitting golden yellow light. The girl, seeing that my aggressive response had deactivated, slowly pushed herself up with her shaking right arm, letting out a soft hiss as she fought through the pain to do so. When she had finally managed to prop herself up, she said with a timid, frightened tone, "Pa…Papa Del…Delta…I'm sor…sorry…please..."

Dumbfounded, I continued to gaze at her in complete shock. They could talk. They must not have had the voice box modification surgery. Alpha appeared as he jumped down to our level. My brother moved to stand beside me and then we looked at the helmetless Big Sister. I bent down onto my right knee and assured her with my Alpha Series voice, "It's okay Little One. We just want to help."

Alpha handed me a First Aid Kit. I took it in my gloved left hand and then slowly slid it to the frightened girl. Keeping her eyes on us, she reached out and retrieved the kit with her right hand. I understood her confusion at our sudden display of kindness after I had been aggressively bludgeoning her moments prior. I was certain that kindness in general was something new for her as well.

As she applied the red liquid soaked bandages to her wounds, my brother asked her, "What's your name?"

She cocked her head to the left in confusion as she replied, "Name?" I realized that she was a survivor from the Mass Production line of Little Sisters. They did not receive names. Only the Alpha Series Little Sisters had names.

I asked her, "You remind me of my Eleanor…do you know her?"

I saw a slight, almost undetectable smile appear on her pale face before she replied, "Of course I do Papa Delta. Silly, we live in the same house…Perphony."

I smiled slightly beneath the emotionless face of Subject Delta before I corrected her, "I think you mean Persephone, sweetie."

She frowned slightly before she replied defensively, "Hey it is a big word alright! Just because I am not as smart as Eleanor doesn't mean that I am stupid!"

I assured her, "I did not say that you were. Besides, Eleanor is a genius. It is not fair to compare yourself to her."

The girl looked at me in silence for a moment as if she was studying me. Then, to my surprise, she asked me, "Are you going to hurt her like Mother said you are?"

I frowned beneath my face as I realized that Sofia was brainwashing the girls into thinking that I was going to hurt their sister in order to rile them up. I assured the misinformed young woman, "Of course not. I can't hurt my daughter…she is only reason that I have to live. Besides…she is my master…I am hers to do with however she pleases."

The Big Sister said sadly, "I miss my Mister Bubbles…Eleanor is lucky to have hers back. Mine is gone…he went with the angels."

I replied, "I'm sorry…I know that he would be proud of you though."

She smiled and then asked, "You think so? I charge at my targets to try to be like him…I guess that is stupid..."

My brother remarked, "That's not stupid." Seeing the two halves of her helmet, he walked over to the destroyed vending machine. After picking through the remains, he pulled a strip of metal free from the machine. The Big Sister watched him in curiosity as he put the two halves back together and then shaped the metal strip around them. When he was satisfied with the shape of the strip, he used his Rivet Gun to attach the strip to the helmet. The rivets were watertight so the helmet was once again a functional diving helmet.

Handing her repaired helmet to her, he informed her, "It will hold, but I would recommend that you find a replacement. The glass is cracked too so be extremely cautious if you need to get in a fight."

She dropped the empty kit and then took her helmet from him. After examining the repair that he had done, she smiled at him and said, "Thank you, Papa Alpha."

He replied, "Any time, Little One."

She looked at me and asked, "Can I come with you?"

I replied, "No, that would not be a good idea. If Sofia sees you with us, she will send your sisters after you. However, if you want to follow us and help from the shadows, we would be very grateful."

She smiled as she placed her helmet back down over her head and then resealed her suit. As she did, my built-in radio activated. Sinclair commented, "You're just makin' all sorts of new friends aren't you, son? Well, head on back to the station and melt the ice, an' we'll say goodbye to this two-bit carney ride."

My radio deactivated and I looked back at the Big Sister only to find that she had silently left. As I looked around for her, I heard a knocking sound coming from above us. When I looked up towards the glass and metal skeleton of the arched ceiling, I saw the Big Sister looking down at us from outside of the glass. Her eye had changed from hellish red to calm yellow. She waved at us before quickly darting out of sight. I could only hope that Sofia did not find out that the sister was now our ally.

As we made our way back to the entrance to the park, my brother commented, "Good thing we did not need to use that exorcism plasmid. She's such a little firecracker that I doubt that we would have been able to get her to be still long enough to use it."

I replied, "Indeed. Perhaps, our new friend can whisper at her sisters about how Sofia is a liar and get them on our side."

He said, "That would be nice. I'd hate to have to fight them individually all the way to Fontaine Futuristics. Some of the others are more sadistic when they fight."

I taunted him, "You're not afraid of them are you?"

He replied calmly, "No, sir. I promised Emily that if I had to kill them as a necessity, I would kill them quickly. The sadistic ones would complicate that."

By then, we had exited the park. As we reached the destroyed remains of the fallen clock in the ticket booth area, the intercom system activated. Sofia preached, "Ryan saw the individual as a hero…a noble survivor. And Rapture was his paradise…a shrine to the supremacy of the self. The result? Slavery. Genocide. Chaos. Now that the Tyrant is dead, we are a true collective…a single family."

I said darkly, "Noble survivor? I think she was talking about you, Alpha." My brother laughed darkly in return. We continued on to the train station. There, I used my genetic flames to melt the ice coating the watertight bulkhead. As the ice melted, my radio activated.

Sinclair said, "Outstandin' sport. You are provin' to be quite a windfall. Now just open the train tunnel from the security booth there, and I'll come an' jump on." My radio deactivated.

Alpha commented, "Hmm…I wonder how much we can milk this little scheme that you have cooking up for."

I smirked before I replied, "Let's not show our hand until we have to. Come with me, I want to see how trustworthy Sinclair is. Even if he takes the train, we can just walk to Fontaine's."

He said, "Right behind you, sir."

We entered the security booth and I pulled the override lever down. Looking through the glass panels of the booth, I saw Sinclair exit the locked room next to the bulkhead gate. He stopped in front of the tooth and turned to look at us. To my surprise, he said, "I like to look a man in the eyes when I give him my word. You and me kid, we're going places!" Then, he turned and waved behind him as he boarded the train car.

Perhaps, I had been a little harsh on Sinclair. The man was silver tongued but even he had a tell when he was lying. I had seen it when he had assured Sofia that there was nothing that he could do to stop Ryan from taking her followers as Test Candidates. His right eye would narrow ever so slightly and if you did not know to look for it, you would easily miss it. I had not seen his eye narrow just now. He truly was giving us his word.

'Don't get comfortable you weak old man! Focus! The second that it is profitable, he will betray you just like before.' I berated myself for weakening my stance on Sinclair. I had to get to Eleanor and Sinclair was a liability to her safety.

However, before I could leave the booth, my radio activated as Sofia contacted me. She sounded apologetic as she admitted, "I had thought you a golem of Sinclair's, brought here to hold Rapture's arms while…" Splicers appeared outside the booth as they headed towards the train car. "…riffles through her pockets." A Thuggish Splicer in bloodied security guard attire began to bang on the booth's reinforced glass with his left fist. "But no…you are aware of your plight. Who, I wonder, would be so cruel? To force a mirror on a man with no face…"

Immediately after she finished, Sinclair said, "Lamb was waitin' for us! Come out shootin' and start the train!"

With our weapons at the ready, we charged out of the booth. Three Thuggish Splicers were in the station. One was by the security door that led to the park. Alpha quickly neutralized him with a headshot. The security guard in bloodied attire rushed at me from where he had been banging against the glass. I blasted him with Electro Bolt and then bashed open his skull with a swing of my drill. The final Splicer, a woman in torn formal attire, was kicking the side of the train car. Getting her attention, I ignited her with a ball of genetic flame. As the nauseating smell filled the air, the woman screamed in agony before Alpha silenced her with a headshot.

We hastily boarded the train in case more Splicers were coming. I pulled the lever and the train began to depart. As we neared the water, both Alpha and I groaned as we prepared for the onrush of icy Atlantic water. I reminded myself that it was just one more time that I had to endure a long period of travel in the freezing ocean water. The next stop would be Fontaine Futuristics. With any luck, the rest of the trip would be uneventful.


End file.
